University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


•  • 


"The  United  Seas" 


By 


ROBERT  W.  ^ROGERS 


Blessed  are  the  pathfinders  who  do  not  fear  the 
seas,  for  they  have  discovered  that  the  very 
waters  are  moving  toward  freedom 


AN  INTERPRETATION 

of  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal,  commemorated 
by    the    Panama-Pacific     International     Exposition. 


Copyrighted  1915 

by  Robert  W.  Rogers 

All  rights  reserved 

in  all  languages. 


INTRODUCTION. 


VISION,  THE  NEED  OF  THE  HOUR 

We  are  living  in  a  day  when  it  would  almost  seem 
that  the  person  who  does  not  value  vision  is  neither 
helpful  nor  wise.  For  it  is  a  day  when  the  peo- 
ple everywhere  need  an  essential  vision  in  order  that 
they  may  gain  courage  to  settle  down  to  constructive 
effort  after  the  close  of  the  world  war. 

In  other  words  there  are  multitudes  who  feel  that 
J  there  is  a  far  deeper  significance  to  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  Canal  as  commemorated  by  the  Panama- 
Pacific  International  Exposition  than  what  appears 
on  the  surface.  There  never  was  an  Exposition  like 
Q  it.  There  never  will  be  another  similiar  to  it  in  the 
future.  Simply  because  there  seems  to  be  something 
written  between  the  lines.  It  is  an  Exposition  in 
which  it  appears  to  be  natural  for  the  sanest  men  to  be 
"  prophetic — one  in  which  men  not  only  behold  the 
star  of  faith  but  also  feel  that  the  star  is  calling  them 
to  move  toward  something  better,  even  if  they  have 
to  grope  their  way.  An  obscure  vision  seems  to  be 
££  in  the  sky  of  hosts  of  people  and  they  are  anxious  to 
hear  the  interpretations  of  men  who  are  brave  enough 
;  to  suggest  one.  They  are  asking  what  does  the  pe- 
culiar inspiration  of  this  Exposition  mean? 

This  book  in  which  the  commemorative  chapters 
are  written  in  rhythmic  prose — for  which  the  author 
need  make  no  apology,  in  as  much  as  Whitman  and 
others  have  already  blazed  the  way  for  independ- 
ence of  poetical  expression — is  given  to  the  public 
with  the  sole  object  in  view  of  conveying  a  mes- 
sage that  has  impressed  the  mind  of  the  author. 
For  among  the  many  kind  expressions  of  commenda- 
tion on  the  prose-poem,  "The  United  Seas,"  none  has 


been  more  appreciated  than  that  given  by  David  Starr 
Jordan  in  these  words,  "Your  prose-poem  has  a  strong 
message  and  many  striking  lines.  I  shall  be  glad  to 
see  it  published." 

Josiah  Strong  in  one  of  his  most  recent  books  en- 
titled, "The  New  World  Life,"  says:  "Socrates  in  the 
Phoedo  compares  the  people  of  his  day,  to  whom  the 
lands  about  the  Aegean  were  the  whole  world,  to  ants 
and  frogs  about  a  marshy  pond.  Where  would  one 
find  a  more  fitting  comparison  for  people  of  the  same 
sort  in  our  day?  The  development  of  a  world  life  bids 
us  pry  out  our  horizon  and  learn  to  think  in  world 
terms.  Facts  are  God's  alphabet  from  which  we  may 
decipher  tendencies  and  tenencies  are  prophetic." 

And  this  prying  out  of  the  horizon  from  the  nation 
to  the  world — as  the  viewpoint  of  the  sons  of  the  pil- 
grims has  been  widened  from  a  New  England  to  a  con- 
tinental scope — is  one  of  the  highest  responsibilities 
and  duties  of  our  day.  Please  remember  then  that 
the  object  of  this  book  is  to  help  others  glimpse  the 
vision.  You  may  say  that  there  is  no  practical  power 
in  vision.  But  we  have  been  following  the  lure  of  the 
Golden  Age  and  the  Holy  City  for  centuries.  Visions 
are  the  only  powerful  things  in  life.  And  this  is  what 
the  people  everywhere  need  now;  not  only  prac- 
tical instruction  but  also  a  vision  of  something 
grander  and  better  than  what  they  now  have,  in  every 
land;  so  that  they  will  be  inspired  to  action.  I  repeat 
it:  The  most  necessary  thing  for  America,  the  waring 
and  neutral  nations  of  the  hour  is  a  powerful  vision  of 
what  ought  to  be  and  what  can  be.  Men  ought  to 
arise  in  every  country  and  give  the  people  the  vision. 

So  go  forward,  O  book,  not  for  the  sake  of  display- 
ing any  merit  of  words.  But  because  you  are  winged 
by  the  mighty  inspiration  of  the  hour.  Speed  on  and 
in  some  slight  way  help  our  international  statesmen 
and  advocates  of  peace  to  carry  their  message  to  the 
peoples  from  the  nations  about  the  seas. 


Dedicated 

to  my  good  wife,  a  lover  of  flowers, 
mountains  and  sea 


Table  of  Contents 


I— The  United  Seas 

Flowers    on    all    Shores 10 

The    United    Seas 11 

The  Words  of  an  Eastern  Sage  15 

II — The  Vision  of  The  Builders 

Brilliants  From  the  Tower  of  Jewels   18 

The   Jewel    City    19 

The  Voices  of  Two  Cities    21 

III— The  Coast 

The  ThueshoM  of  Vision    24 

Our  Pacific  Sea    25 

IV — The  Mariner's  New  Inspiration 

The  First  Trip  Through  the  Canal   30 

The    Ancon 31 

The  Altruism  of  Ool.  Goethals   31 

V— World  Pioneers 

Land   and    Sea  Breezes    34 

The  Pioneers  of  the  World   ,. .  35 

The  Olive  Branch  as  an  Emblem  of  World  Peace  41 

Essential    Democracy    44 

A  Prayer  for  World  Citizens    46 

VI— World  Citizens 

Precepts'  for   World    Citizens    48 

Beatitudes  for  World  Statesmen 51 

The   World's    Neighborhood 53 

VII— The  Sea's  Highest  Decree 

What  Are  the  Seasi  About   56 

The  Altruism  of  the  Sea 58 

VIII — Helps  To  Interpretation 

How  to  Become  a  World  Citizen    62 

The  Key  to  the  Vision 64 

Balboa    , 65 

A  New  Inspiration  for  Literature  66 

IX— Sea  To  Land 

From  Sea  to  Tree  and1  Fruit   70 

The   Olive  in  Biblical   History    71 

The  Modern  Parable  of  the  Orange  Tree 77 


I 


The  United  Seas 


10  THE  UNITED  SEAS 

FLOWERS  ON  ALL  SHORES 


Not  long  after  the  opening  of  the  Panama-Pacific 
International  Exposition,  Blossom  Day,  an  annual 
feature  in  California  life  was  observed,  to  be  followed 
later  by  nature's  offering  of  flowers  on  the  shores  of 
all  nations.  Here  are  some  blossoms: 


Flowers  speak  in  all  nations  of  hope  to  the  fainting 
heart.  And  in  the  nation  where  flowers  degenerate 
man  cannot  live. 


"I  believe  a  leaf  of  grass  is  no  less  than  the  journey- 
work  of  the  stars 

And  the  running  blackberry  would  adorn  the  parlors 
of  heaven 

And  a  mouse  is  miracle  enough  to  stagger  sextillions 
of  infidels." 

—Whitman, 


Who  am  I  and  who  are  you  to  shun  the  sea-born 
rain  when  trees  and  flowers  and  birds  are  made  merry 
by  it  and  never  think  of  shelter. — Adapted  from 
Quayle. 


"Flowers  and  fruits  are  always  fit  gifts  because  a 
ray  of  beauty  is  appreciated  all  over  the  world;  be- 
cause the  language  of  the  flower  can  be  understood  in 
any  land." — Comfort  Guild. 


THE    UNITED    SEAS  11 

*THE  UNITED  SEAS 


The  wise  men  from  every  land,  believing 
That  unseen  good  is  often 
With  great  events  allied  unawares, 
Must  be  asked  to  unfold  the  meaning 

Involved  in  the  uniting  of  the  Earth's  greatest  seas. 

***** 

For  after  aeons  of  isthmian  neighborliness 

And  ages  of  barrier'd  friendship, 

Herculean  genius  has  removed  the  mountain 

And  stubborn  nature  has  yielded  to  the  union  of  the 

Pacific 

With  the  impetuous  Atlantic, 
To  be  commemorated   with  an  apocalypse   of  light 

and  color, 

By  the  races  assembled  at  the  Golden  Gate, 
Within  the  natural  sanctuary  of  our  Bay, 
Cathedralled  by  the  mountains  and  the  arching  blue 

sky  built  o'er  Immensity. 

***** 

The  petty  Shylocks  have  not  been  invited 

To  be  there  with  unfilled  bags  for  gold, 

Nor  the  sordid  traffickers  in  human  fllesh, 

To  daily  swarm  a  city's  pits  of  hell 

And  by  a  lewd  commerce  augment  their  filthy  gains. 

Sad  wretches !     They  that  holy  hour  would  misfit  and 

defame. 

For  their  hands,  the  jewels  could  finger 
And  the  pageantry  their  eyes  could  observe 
But  their  souls  could  never  divine  the  sublime  thought 

Of  the  bridal  of  two  vast  seas. 

***** 

So  give  way,  blind  temporizers! 

For  the  seers  and  prophets  have  seen  our  star  and 
have  arrived 

*An  interpretation  of  the  Panama -Pacific  International  Ex- 
position,  written  before  the  opening-  on  February  20th,   1915. 


12  THE   UNITED   SEAS 

Rightly  to  interpret  the  emotions  struggling  for  ut- 
terance in  that  unusual  hour. 

In  these  ominous  words,  silencing  all  speech: 

"The  Human  mind  is  Leaving  the  Log  Cabin  and 
Statehouse 

To  Enter  'the  Parliament  of  Man/  the  Federation  of 
the  World." 

***** 

So  the  true  from  every  land,  vast  armies  of  welcome 

guests,  they  come! — 
The  sons  of  kings  and  nobles  and  the  late-increasing 

hosts  of  freemen,  so  innumerable, 
To  see  the  passing  of  provincial  national  life. 
*    *    *    *    * 

And  our  imagination  now  hears  the  mighty  tread  of 
pilgrims, 

And  sees  this  Western  paradise  bestirred  in  final 
preparation  for  its  festive  attire — 

Our  Rocky's  wide  slope,  within  its  hidden  labora- 
tories, 

By  some  chemical's  new  magic  hastening  to  make 
more  enchanting  its  coast-wide  tribute  of 
flowers ; 

If  possible  more  stately  its  redwoods,  more  mighty  its 
hills; 

And  our  stars  in  the  heavens  are  brightening  their 
lights 

To  welcome  the  long  caravans  from  the  nations, 

The  ships  from  all  the  seas, — 

To  a  ceremony  epochal,  from  dawn  into  days  worth- 
ily prolonged. 

***** 

For  the  silvery  Queen  of  Night  will  tarry  in  a  veiled 

appreciation 
Until  the  powerful  King  of  Day  comes  resplendent 

from  the  east,  in  a  new  vernal  splendor, 
While  the  globe,  electrified  and  cabled  into  hearing, 


THE   UNITED   SEAS  13 

With  its  armies  momentarily  halting  in  embarrassed 
meditation, 

Will  quiver  with  attention  at  the  dawn  of  that  mo- 
mentous day 

When  it  is  authoritatively  announced : 

That  the  tumultous  Atlantean  stalwart,  the  first  born 
of  the  east 

And  the  interminable  Austral  ocean,  gentle  empress 
of  the  west, 

Have  been  joined  in  the  tidal  grasp  of  a  spheric  wed- 
lock 

Uniting  two  hemisphere  estates. 

Sure  to  be  conducive  to  international  progress, 

Prophetic  of  a  planetary  brotherhood, 

And  bravely  resolute  for  world-peace. 
*     *     *     *     * 

Yes,  in  spite  of  war  and  carnage, 

The  invincible  human  spirit  will    then    escape    the 

thralldom  of  a  temporary  despair; 
For  in  this  land  of  hope  and  courage,  which    is    a 

prophecy  of  the  world  to  be, 
Where  the  strong  sons  of  freedom's     pioneers     still 

breathe  a  bracing  air, 
And  drink  a  freeman's  water  fresh  from  every  hill — 

and  not  human  blood  with  warring  kings — 
Here,  the  vision  so  transforming, 
The  vision  of  our  fathers,  will  become  the  vision  of 

all  the  sons  of  men! 

*        *        *        *        * 

Here,  where  reason  and  not  hate  is  peculiarly  creative, 

Where  the  intelligence  of  peace  is  so  successful — and 
not  the  blind  force  of  retrogressive  men — 

Here,  the  new  spirit  of  World  Democracy,  still  youth- 
ful like  David,  must  be  strengthened  to  slay  the 
European  Goliath; 

To  defy  Mar's  staggering  bluff  and  check  the  anti- 
quated ambition  of  war. 

For  not  only  will  the  vision  of  our  fathers  become  the 
vision  of  all  the  sons  of  men, 


14  THE    UNITED    SEAS 

But  the  resolution  of  their  heroes  is  also  to  become 
the  purpose  of  the  race! 

***** 

So,  the  wise  men,  they  too  have  come! 

Not  to  finger,  nor  to  trifle; 

Undismayed  by  war  or  ignorance, 

Loyal  advocates  of  unfailing  providence, 

Cabined  not  by  years  nor  decades — 

They  look  out  upon  the  ages  and  can  trace  historic 

movements ; 

And  for  them  a  thousand  years  is  no  longer  than  a  day. 
***** 

They  look  northward  toward  Ambition; 

They  look  eastward  toward  a  Manager; 

They  look  westward  toward  a  Holy  City; 

They  look  southward  toward  an  Isthmus ; 

They  look  inward  and  declare,   "Man  was  born  to 

grow,  not  stop!" 
They  look  throng-ward,  to  interpret  the  strange  spell 

overcasting  seers  and  doubters,  and  exclaim: 
"The  international  mind  subconscious  is  struggling 

successfully  here  to  become  conscious. 
Yea,  take  the  scales  from  your  eyes  and  you  will  see 
That  the  mind  of  man  is  becoming  broader 
And  your  brotherhood  from  a  race  is  to  be  freed 
As  the  pilgrims  from  the  nations  become  the  pioneers 

of  the  sphere — 

As  they  catch  the  prophet's  vision, 
The  Son  of   Man's  distant  vision  of  an  essentially 

united  earth, 

When  they  begin  to  think  the  world-thoughts, 
Irresistibly  inspired  by  the  spheric  union  of  Jehovah's 


For  the  universal  Father,  the  God  of  the  united  seas, 

He  is  still  the  Lord  of  all  might 

And  His  strength  is  in  genius,  in  love  and  in  truth. 


THE   UNITED   SEAS  15 

THE  WORDS  OF  AN  EASTERN  SAGE 


Charles  Francis  Adams,  whose  grandfather  was  one 
of  our  early  Presidents  and  whose  father  was  a  Min- 
ister to  London  before  the  Civil  War,  felt  with  over- 
whelming reality  the  inspiration  of  the  world  vision. 

Mr.  Adams,  a  man  of  sound  judgment  and  of  im- 
portance and  distinction,  a  month  before  his  recent 
death,  in  writing  about  the  European  War,  made  the 
following  sage  remarks: 

"We  suddenly  find  ourselves  thrown  back  an  entire 
century.  Again  we  are  confronted  by  'paper  and 
blockades*  on  an  almost  unprecedented  scale,  and  by 
'Milan*  and  'Berlin*  decrees,  with  'orders  in  council,  in 
reserve  and  in  response  thereto. 

"Such  a  situation  has  got  to  work  itself  out;  and,  in 
my  belief,  can  do  so  only  through  the  complete  ex- 
haustion of  those  more  immediately  engaged.  When 
that  condition  of  exhaustion  is  fully  developed  the 
neutral  powers,  if  in  the  interim  they  have  held  them- 
selves in  reserve,  will  be  in  a  position  effectively  to 
intervene.  The  whole  sea  usage  of  nations,  common- 
ly known  as  'international  law/  will  then  have  to  un- 
dergo a  process  of  fundamental  revision.  The  basic 
principles  only  will  be  left;  and  a  new  system,  which 
will  include  in  my  belief  a  world  federation,  an  organ- 
ized judicial  tribunal  and  an  international  police  must 
be  evolved. 

"This  is  a  large  contract;  and  yet  the  task  is  one  to 
which  both  legislators  and  publicists  cannot,  I  think, 
too  soon  or  too  seriously  address  themselves.  A  great 
educational  process  is  involved,  and  cannot  be  pre- 
maturely entered  upon;  but  the  time  and  mode  of  ac- 
tion and  concrete  outcome  are  as  yet  hardly  fore- 
shadowed. Under  the  condition,  therefore,  which  I 
have  thus  sought  to  outline,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 


16  THE   UNITED   SEAS 

present  is  a  time  when  those  who  think  and  feel  as  I 
do  should  possess  their  souls  with  patience." 

These  are  strong  words.  And  although  the  time  has 
not  yet  come  when  the  definite  line  of  action  can  even 
be  foreshadowed,  the  people  must  get  his  inspiration. 
He  believes  that  there  will  be  a  revision  of  interna- 
tional law  and  as  has  been  said  that  there  will  be  a 
world  federation,  a  united  states  of  the  world  to  give 
expression  of  its  rulings  through  an  international 
court,  with  its  decrees  enforced  by  an  international 
police  force.  It  is  going  to  take  the  sagacity  of 
strong  men  to  bring  this  stupendous  achievement  to 
pass.  But  because  thoughtful  people  are  beginning 
to  think  in  this  direction,  this  magnificent  ideal  is  not 
an  impossibility.  It  is  to  be  prayed  for,  expected  and 
worked  for.  And  in  every  land  the  vision  should  now 
be  given  to  the  people. 


II 


The  Vision  of  the  Builders 


18  VISION    OF   THE   BUILDERS 

BRILLIANTS  FROM  THE  TOWER 
OF  JEWELS 


If  God  is  light,  Edison  and  his  disciples  must  have 
glimpsed  some  of  His  glory. 

***** 

"They  shall  splash  at  a  ten  league  canvas  with 
brushes  of  comet  hair." — Kipling's  words  that  might 
be  used  in  describing  Jules  Guerin's  masterful  work  in 
painting  a  thousand  acre  canvas. 


"Fair  city  of  the  sun,  laved  by  the  blue  seas,  glow- 
ing like  a  topaz  within  a  setting  of  dark  cradling 
streets,  that  rose  tier  on  tier  around  it." — Whitaker's 
impression  of  the  Exposition  received  upon  entering 
the  Golden  Gate  from  the  sea. 


The  creamy  surface  of  the  tower  of  jewels  is  studded 
with  125,000  great  glass  jewels  made  in  Austria  and 
safely  landed  in  this  country,  which  with  the  floods  of 
light  diffusing  from  concealed  sources,  creates  an 
illumination  that  is  peculiarly  impressive  against  the 
background  of  the  night's  sky  and  often  makes  the 
Exposition  grounds  lighter  by  day  than  by  night. 


If  Whitman  was  right  when  he  said  "dazzling  and 
tremendous  how  quick  the  sunrise  would  kill  me,  if  I 
could  not  now  and  always  send  sunrise  out  of  me,"  then 
we  do  not  exaggerate  in  saying  that  the  sunlight 
has  partly  spoken  through  the  builders  of  the  Jewel 
City. 


VISION   OP  THE   BUILDERS  19 

THE  JEWEL  CITY 


Mystically  inspired, 

Amazingly  patient,  tireless  suppliants  for  the  vision 

You  have  caught  the  ray  of  a  true,  a  far  distant  light. 

And  these  palaces  and  pillars  let  them  crumble  when 
they  their  days  have  fulfilled. 

For  in  mind  and  in  soul  you  have  agonized  and  strug- 
gled, 

Until  triumphantly  you  have  evoked  the  very  stones 
into  utterance. 

And  through  that  which  decays  you  have  spoken  the 
eternal  and  the  undecaying  thought. 


Well  done,  master-minded  builders. 

For  the  world  mind,  geographically  at  least,  it  has 
conquered ! 

And  through  this  miracle  of  color  companioning  the 
hosts  of  the  nations  about  the  universe's  court, 

With  a  modern  Prometheus  banishing  the  night, 

You  are  radiating  the  contagion  of  the  triumph  to 
the  land  and  the  sea. 

For  looking  southward  in  a  vision — 

The  architects  and  sculptors  have  seen  the  first  rush 
of  the  hemispheric  waters,  victoriously  inter- 
mingling. 

And  lo,  the  inspiration  of  an  isthmian  genius  has 
here  become  the  inspiration  and  joy  of  a  race. 
***** 

And  the  races — 

Hear  the  dialects,  see  the  people — 

Now  catching  the  world    thought   they   hunger   for 

brotherhood. 

And  even  while  they  laugh  for  brotherhood  they  pray 
For  they  are  groping 


20  VISION   OF  THE  BUILDERS 

And  inaudibly  they  are  praying  for  more  planetary 

builders, 

To  express  the  growing  consciousness  of  the  interna- 
tional mind, 

As  here  materially  in  stone  and  in  mortar, 
So  invisibly  in  governments  and  a  new  world  order, 
And  in  a  brotherhood,  large  minded  and  interracial  in 
its  scope. 

***** 

And  we  believe 

That  the  God  of  the  United  Seas  will  hear  their  pe- 
tition in  His  way. 

For  as  intently  we  gaze,  we  can  see 

That  this  apocalypse  of  light  and  color,  directing  up- 
ward and  sympathizing  throng-ward 

Prophesies  that  the  races  are  divinely  to  be  led  into 
essential  unity. 

***** 

And  even  more,  O  path-finders! 

*We  seem  to  see,  the  very  pillars — emblematic  of  a 
holy  shaft  of  light — gathering  here. 

Radiating  not  only  towards  the  skys; 

But  also  hovering,  hovering,  hovering,  as  if  prepar- 
ing, when  the  festive  days  are  o'er. 

To  guide  to  democracy's  sacred  task  across  the  high- 
ways of  the  seas. 

*An    impression    caught    while    crossing-   the    bay    at    night. 


VISION    OP   THE   BUILDERS  21 

THE  VOICES  OF  TWO  CITIES 


Two  cities  on  the  Western  coast  are  heralding  to 
the  world  the  triumphant  completion  of  the  Panama 
canal.  And  if  a  certain  writer  is  right  in  saying  that 
there  are  seven  wonders  of  the  modern  world — tele- 
phone, wireless,  aeroplane,  radium,  and  antisceptics 
and  antitoxins,  spectrum  analysis  and  X-rays — as  there 
were  seven  wonders  of  the  ancient  world,  we  can  well 
add  that  the  Panama  canal  is  the  eighth  modern  won- 
der and  that  it  is  the  wonder  of  all  wonders,  ancient 
and  modern. 

And  it  is  well  that  nearly  a  year  is  to  be  given  by 
both  cities  to  the  commemoration  of  this  event  in  or- 
der that  the  whole  world  may  fully  feel  the  significance 
of  this  remarkable  engineering  feat  to  its  whole  life. 

The  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition  held 
at  San  Francisco,  from  February  20  to  December  4, 
1915,  is  the  national  celebration  authorized  and  sanc- 
tioned and  partly  financed  by  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  the  total  investment  being  $50,000,000. 
The  Exposition  area  covers  635  acres  of  ground,  hav- 
ing a  frontage  of  two  miles  on  the  bay  immediately  in- 
side of  the  Golden  Gate.  The  grounds  are  divided 
into  three  main  divisions;  the  foreign  section  nearest 
to  the  Golden  Gate,  the  central  portion  with  its  ex- 
hibit palaces  and  great  Tower  of  Jewels  rising  435  feet 
high  and  the  eastern  section  for  rest  and  amusement. 
In  keeping  with  the  world  consciousness  four  courts 
are  found  on  the  grounds;  the  Court  of  the  Four 
Seasons;  Court  of  the  Universe;  Court  of  Abun- 
dance; Court  of  Palms;  Court  of  Flowers.  Every 
state  and  territory  in  the  Union  has  made  exhibits 
and  in  spite  of  the  world  war  more  than  forty  foreign 
countries  are  represented  and  co-operating  in  the  com- 
memoration of  this  most  historic  event. 

The  Panama-California  Exposition  is  held  at  San 
Diego,  California,  throughout  the  year  1915,  for  which 


22  VISION   OF  THE  BUILDERS 

the  sum  of  $3,500,000  was  raised.  The  grounds  are 
embraced  within  a  fourteen-acre  park,  known  as  "Bal- 
boa Park,"  being  at  the  very  heart  of  the  city  of  San 
Diego.  The  Exposition  is  international  in  its  scope 
and  has  exhibits  from  all  the  American  countries  and 
from  some  of  the  European  and  oriental  nations.  It 
has  an  exhibit  showing  the  progress  of  man  from 
primitive  times  up  to  the  present ;  and  also  some  beau- 
tiful floral  and  horticultural  exhibits,  which  are  mak- 
ing both  of  the  expositions  most  attractive,  many  of 
the  tourists  going  south  from  San  Francisco  in  order 
that  they  may  participate  in  both  celebrations. 


Ill 


The  Coasft 


24  THE   COAST 

THE  THRESHOLD  OF  VISION 


The  following  prose-poem  is  written  from  the  view- 
point of  the  national  spirit,  pressing  toward  the 
world  vision  which  directly  controls  the  thought  of 
the  previous  prose-poem.  For  the  Golden  Gate,  espe- 
cially during  the  Exposition  is  for  the  quickened  soul 
the  portal — the  pulling  aside  of  the  curtain  through 
which  one  gets  the  world  vision.  The  title,  "Our 
Pacific  Sea"  might  well  be  interpreted: 

Our — Democracy. 

Pacific — Nationality. 

Sea — Verging  into  the  world-vision. 

Here  on  this  shore — as  prophets  are,  of  course, 
doing  elsewhere — we  are  putting  our  feet  on  the  rock 
and  looking  out  over  the  waters  and  into  the  skys. 
With  San  Diego,  which  is  even  nearer  to  the  canal, 
our  whole  coast  is  peculiarly  susceptible  to  world 
thought  at  this  time.  And  the  people  who  come  here 
may  forever  after  have  an  outward  and  upward  look 
in  their  lives. 

Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  flowers,  hills 
and  climate  of  California,  but  at  this  time,  when  the 
world  is  looking  toward  our  coast,  would  that  more 
writers  would  reveal  the  thoughts  that  have  been  in- 
spired in  their  minds  by  the  sight  of  our  great  West- 
ern sea. 

The  prose-poem  itself  is  a  denial  of  the  thought 
that  the  Pacific  is  a  monotonous  calm — an  appreciation 
both  of  its  storms  and  serenity  written  after  several 
visits  to  the  beach  in  which  both  moods  were  display- 
ed. The  first  three  verses,  the  prelude,  describe  the 
impression  made  by  the  movement  of  the  boisterous 
sea  landward,  upon  the  observor  when  first  arriving 
at  the  shore. 


THE   COAST  26 

OUR  PACIFIC  SEA 


The  raging  of  of  our  sea! 

The  defiant  roar  of  its  attack  on  rock,  cliff  and  shore, 
Spreads  the  contagion  of  a  mighty  courage, 
Springing  from  the  resolute  deep. 

*  *     *     *     * 

The  voices  from  our  sea ! 

Like  an  unending  processional  stealing  on  the  soul 

from  the  double  blue  afar, 
The  eternal  bass  of  nature's  choir, 
A  power-inspiring  undertone  from  profundity. 

*  *     *     *     * 

The  laboring  and  heaving  of  her  waves 
Like  the  toiling  of  all  humanity  at  its  task, 
Braces  the  will  with  the  story 
Of  our  faithful  ocean's  endless  day. 
***** 

O,  great  Pacific!    Often  calm  as  a  sea  of  glass, 

Who  durs't  say  that  thou  cans't  not  live 

And  bestir  thyself  with  boisterous  life; 

That  thou  cans't  not  with  growing  fury  hugely  to  thy 

defense  arise, 

When  rebuffed  by  wind,  by  rock  and  cliff. 
Thy  deep  is  not  an  incessant,  idle  sleep ! 
Thou  cans't  heave  and  leap  and  live  with  ponderous 

life, 
Until  thy  waves,  up  from  the  bottom  turning,  are  all 

afoam  with  terrible  rage, 
Their  salty  crests  mounting  on  tangled  spray 
And  raining  back  to  sea  a  million  opals. 
***** 

We  love  our  sea  and  thy  reserve  of  strength, 
For  thou  art  indeed  the  favorite  of  our  God, 
For  when  the  Son  of  Man  spoke  to  the  snarling  waves, 


26  THE   COAST 

Thou  of  all  waters  didst  best  obey  and  heed  the  Mas- 
ter's mandate,  "Peace  be  still." 

But  He  commanded  not  eternal  quite  and  thou  art 
somewhat  falsely  famed. 

For  when  necessity's  hour  arrives, 

Thou  with  all  violent  seas  canst  throb  from  deepest 
heart ; 

With  unrestrained  power  plunging  to  climb  the  skys, 
crushing  against  the  rocks — 

Sublimely  tempestuous,  majestic  in  rage,  in  fury 
glorious ! 


And  after  the  waters'  landward  assault, 

To-day  we  can  better  ascend  to  observe  the  ocean's 

peace. 

And  here,  great  Sea ! — 
How  naturally  hovers  infinity  over  that  hemispheric 

calm, 

As  from  this  rocky,  shore-projecting  cliff 
We  behold  thy  endless  expanse  over  meridians  and  the 

world,  into  and  behind  the  sky — vast,  serene, 

stupendous. 
And  as  we  gaze  and  worship  and  pray,  drenched  with 

omnipotence, 

We  dare  with  highest  emotions  declare 
That  God,  not  once  but  always,  walks  the  seas. 

***** 

O  life  giving  fount,  a  resurrecting  breeze, 

We  cling  to  our  sea,  an  army  of  men  in  cities  and  fields, 

on  streams  and  on  hills, 
Because  thou  dost  live  and  let  live. 
For  daily  thy  breath  kisses  our  shores  with  beauty  and 

life, 
Thy  varying  moods  are  an  unspeakable  comfort  to  all 

manly  souls. 
For  thy  grandeur  holds  an  invisible  gate  of  gold, 


THE   COAST  27 

Through  which  sails  a  celestial  mariner,  the  spirit  of 
our  Father,  God. 

***** 

O  visitors  to  these  enchanted  shores, 

Join  the  brotherhood  of  the  brothers  of  the  sea — 

Not  dreamers,  but  heroic  men, 

Who  love  our  rock-ribbed,  templed  hills  and  gigantic 

trees,  but  better  yet,  our  sea! 
Take  the  shoes  from  off  thy  feet, 
For  here  thou  art  on  holy  ground  before  nature's  truest 

Angelus, 

To  feel  the  awe  of  power,  to  think  as  deep  as  truth, 
And  leave  a  noble  soul  to  uplift  the  homes  of  friends. 


And  deep-eyed  patriots, 

On  every  shore  and  from  every  inland  city,  vale  and 

hill, 

Look  out  and  up,  and  live ! 
In  spirit  journey  abroad  over  latitudes  and  longitudes, 

the  equator  and  the  sphere, 
To  mingle  with  the  vision'd  souls  of  men  who  gaze 

far  out  on  our  Pacific  sea 
Toward  the  slowly  rising  essential  Republic  of  the 

world. 

***** 

Fear  not,  move  out  in  ship,  in  thought  and  plan — 
Brave  men,  move  out! 

For  on  the  waters  of  the  Earth's  vast  deeps  brother- 
hood has  faith  in  Fatherhood. 
And  the  God  who  bound  together 
The  colonies  on  our  New  England  shores 
Will  bind  together  the  nations  about  the  seas, 
Through  fearless  men  of  faith  moving  toward  the  best 
The  alluring  best  that  is  still  to  be. 


"The  fact  that  man  has  discovered  no  celestial  body 
which  contains  elements  other  than  those  of  the  earth 
is  more  than  a  hint  of  the  unity  of  creation"  and  its 
movement  towards  a  single  purpose. — Adapted  from 
Josiah  Strong. 


IV 


The  Mariners'  New 
Inspiration 


36  MARINERS'  NEW  INSPIRATION 

THE  FIRST  TRIP  THROUGH 
THE  CANAL 


On  August  18,  1914,  the  steamship  Ancon  made  the 
first  regular,  continuous  trip,  with  a  complete  cargo, 
through  the  canal,  the  steamer  Cristobel  making  an 
experimental  journey  a  few  days  previously. 

The  Ancon,  with  Colonel  Goethals  on  the  bridge, 
left  Colon  on  scheduled  time,  passed  through  the  locks 
and  within  ten  hours  entered  the  waters  of  the  Pa- 
cific at  Panama.  And  twenty-four  hours  after  a 
small  fleet  of  ships  of  commerce  made  the  passage 
of  the  canal,  the  opening  of  which  the  world  is  now 
celebrating  on  the  Pacific  Coast 

The  commendable  spirit  displayed  by  America 
in  the  opening  of  the  canal  is  an  indication  of  what 
may  be  expected  in  the  future  as  far  as  the  United 
States  is  concerned  in  perfecting  equitable  plans  for 
international  co-operation. 

The  New  York  World  puts  it  clearly  in  these 
words:  "Today  the  canal  lies  open  to  all  the  nations 
of  the  world  upon  equal  terms.  The  United  States 
has  acted  with  entire  good  faith,  and  in  the  observance 
of  its  treaties  discriminated  against  none  and  reserved 
no  exclusive  rights  to  itself.  Beyond  the  collection 
of  tolls,  which  are  uniform  to  ships  of  all  flags,  it 
has  assumed  none  of  the  privileges  of  national  own- 
ership at  the  expense  of  friends  and  rivals  in  trade. 
It  has  achieved  a  moral  triumph  no  less  impressive 
than  the  material  victory  won  by  its  engineers  over 
nature  in  the  piercing  of  the  isthmus." 


MARINERS'  NEW  INSPIRATION  31 

THE  ANCON 


Sail  through,  Ancon,  most  prophetic  ship 

Hastening  from  the  heavy  sobbing  of  blood-stained 

seas. 

For  thou  art  more  than  keel  and  hull, 
Than  armor  bearer  and  a  man  freighted  deck 
Thou  shoulds't  be  the  Mayflower  of  the  coming  demo- 
cracy of  the  world. 


Looking  through  the  vista 
Of  this  earth-rent  canal — a  telescope, 
Mirroring  a  city  in  the  western  skys — 
Clearer,  clearer,  clearer,  becomes  the  vision 
Of  the  alluring  ideal  halloed  by  a  glowing  sun. 
Nearer,  nearer,  nearer  doest  thou  sail, 
Until  now  behold  thou  doest  glide 
•Out  onto  the  Pacific,  secure  in  peaceful  freedom. 
Until  the  eastern  war  clouds  being  dispelled, 
On,  on,  on  thou  canst  sail  into  the  haven  of  the  es- 
sential republic  of  the  world. 


THE  ALTRUISM  OF  COL.  GOETHALS 


There  is  no  more  beautiful  example  in  history  of 
international  altruism  than  that  displayed  by  Col. 
G.  W.  Goethals,  who  will  for  all  time  be  remembered 
as  the  one  who  successfully  completed  the  Panama 
Canal.  And  if  all  men  were  like  him  in  spirit  the 
brotherhood  of  the  nations  would  begin  tomorrow. 

For  when  the  National  Geographic  Society  honored 
Col.  Goethals  with  the  presentation  of  a  medal,  at  its 
ninth  annual  banquet  held  at  Washington,  D.  C., 
which  was  attended  by  the  president  of  the  United 


32  MARINERS'  NEW  INSPIRATION 

States,  his  cabinet  and  the  diplomatic  representatives 
of  every  great  foreign  nation,  these  are  the  words — 
entirely  free  from  American  provincialism — that  the 
eminent  engineer  used  in  responding  to  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  medal  by  President  Woodrow  Wilson: 

"Mr.  President,  it  is  an  easier  task  to  build  the  Pan- 
ama Canal  than  it  is  for  me  to  find  words  to  express 
appreciation  of  the  honor  conferred  upon  me  by  the 
National  Geographic  Society  and  the  distinguished 
manner  in  which  the  presentation  of  the  medal  has 
been  made.  This  medal  represents  the  satisfaction 
of  the  National  Geographic  Society  at  the  practical 
completion  of  the  canal  and  its  approval  of  the  serv- 
ices rendered. 

"Those  services  are  not  only  individual  services  but 
national  services.  The  French  were  the  pioneers  in 
the  undertaking.  But  for  the  work  that  they  did  on 
the  isthmus  we  could  not  today  regard  the  canal  as 
practically  completed.  But  for  the  English  we  prob- 
ably would  not  have  known  the  means  of  eradicating 
malaria ;  the  death  rate  would  have  been  great.  Among 
individuals  we  have  national  representatives  in  the 
Spanish  and  the  English  in  our  laboring  force. 

"The  canal  has  been  the  work  of  many,  and  it  has 
been  the  pride  of  Americans  who  have  visited  the 
canal  to  find  the  spirit  which  animated  the 
forces.  *  *  *  And  so  in  accepting  the  medal  and 
thanking  the  National  Geographic  Society  for  it,  I 
accept  it  and  thank  them  in  the  name  of  every  mem- 
ber of  the  canal  army." 

Goethals  is  truly  a  world  citizen.  And  The  Na- 
tional Geographic  Magazine  well  defines  his  spirit  in 
these  terse  words  describing  the  completion  of  the 
canal: 

"Atlantic— Goethals— Pacific." 


8 

World  Pioneers 


34  WORLD    PIONEERS 

LAND  AND  SEA  BREEZES 


The  land  is  better  for  the  sea, 
The  ocean  for  the  shore. 

— Larcom. 


"The  tide  is  rising,  let  the  land  be  glad.  The  breath- 
less, rolicking,  happy  tides,  whose  comings  are  in  truth 
the  gladness  of  the  world!" — Quayle. 


How  much  earth's  flowers,  hills,  valleys  and  human 
life  owe  to  the  sea  breezes.  And  how  indispensable 
are  the  clear  mountain  streams  to  the  sea,  in  pouring 
fresh  water  into  its  salty  heart. 


How  joyful  are  the  waters,  when  the  earth  yields 
up  its  hosts  of  travellers,  merchants,  ambassadors,  mis- 
sionaries, educators,  homeseekers  and  international 
statesmen  to  relieve  the  lonesomeness  of  its  wide-flow- 
ing deep.  All  hail  to  the  many  ships  that  pass  by  sea ! 


"The   earth   is   rude,   silent  and  incomprehensive   at 

first- 
Be  not  discouraged — keep  on — there  are  divine  things 

well  enveloped; 
I  swear  to  you  there  are  divine  things  more  beautiful 

than  words  can  tell." 

—Walt  Whitman. 


WORLD  PIONEERS  35 

THE  PIONEERS  OF  THE  WORLD 


O  far-seeing  seers, 

Looking  over  the  shoulders  of  empires  and  nations, 

unconsciously  dwarfed  with  prejudice, 
Telescopic  in  vision,  down  the  vista  of  the  centuries, 
You  know  not  how  far  and  deep  you  thought, 
Nor  what  beginnings  you  wrought; 
For  we  hasten  to  crown  you,  the  world  pioneers. 


Call  the  roll  of  the  men  whose  minds  have  compan- 
ioned with  the  globe! 

Who  were  these  staunch  henchmen  of  a  race, 

Getting  their  inspiration  from  a  pillared  cloud  by  day 
and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night, 

And  negotiating  with  the  continents  and  seas  of  an 
earth? 

Who  were  these  world  pioneers? 


Courageous  Magellan,  you  were    the    first    of    the 

spheric  heroes, 
Who  with  your  fifteen  braves  looking  out  from  an 

isthmian  cliff,  civilization's  bleakest  frontier, 
Out  upon  an  untrailed,  unsailed,  trackless  deep, 
Was  the  first  to  push  away  from  an  Astec — hugged 

shore, 
And  send  westward  your  creaking  craft  so  mightily 

propelled  by  an  explorer's  tireless  heart, 
That  when  at  Maclan  island  the  red  man's  arrow 

struck  you  to  the  earth, 
The  mighty  spirit  of  your  immortal  soul  so  fired  your 

companion's  wills, 

That  they  with  invincible  force  encircled  the  globe — 
Past  the  Celestial  Empire,  doubling  Cape  Good  Hope 
And  into  Seville  Roads,  they  came! 


WORLD   PIONEERS 


The  first  to  complete  the  voyage  about  the  sphere! 
The  first  to  exclaim,  "the  world,  the  world." 


And  inconquerable  Cyrus  Field  you  were  one; 

Who  by  linking  Valentia  and  New  Foundland, 

Awakening  to  mutual  speech  two  continents  that  were 
mutually  dumb, — 

Was,  in  spite  of  repeated  breakings  and  the  cowardly 
desertion  of  avowed  friends, 

The  first,  O  indomitable  knight  of  a  world's  progress, 

To  successfully  lay  the  Atlantic  cable. 

The  first  to  start  a  conversation  between  two  hem- 
ispheres 

And  with  initial  message  to  yonder  shores  proclaim: 

"Europe  and  America  are  now  by  telegraph  united 

To  God  be  glory,  in  the  highest 

And  on  earth  peace  and  good  will  toward  men." 

Indispensable  pioneer,  you  wedded  the  continents  as 
Goethals  united  the  seas. 

And  now  the  voice  of  man  is  naturalized  to  a  sphere. 

It  can  be  heard  through  the  nations,  around  the  world. 

Whether  Caucasian  or  Mongolian — he  can  talk  about 
the  globe. 


And  distance-vanishing  Fulton,  you  were  one; 
Who— launching   upon   the   waters   the   first   steam- 
propelled  ship,  the  Cleremont, 

From  who's  experimental  hull  leaped  into  existence 
The  Savanah,  the  Great  Eastern  and  Britannia, 
Each  moving  faster,  faster  than  the  one  before — 
Was  the  first  to  draw  together  the  continents,  like 
some  Colossus  with  a  shortening  cord  of  time 
Until  from  coast  range  to  distant  shores 
And  from  distant  shores  to  coast  range 
Each  new  speeding  steamer  brings  us  closer, 


WORLD   PIONEERS  37 

Making  more  certain  the  intermingling  of  the  races 
preparing  for  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

***** 

And  great  Augustine,  dissolute  as  a  youth 

But  angelic  as  a  man,  you  were  one; 

Who — the  humblest  and  the  quickest  to  recognize 

That  since  the  day  of  Christ  all  noble  men  were  sent, 

And  that  constrained  and  resolute  with  Paul  and  with 

Peter  they  had  gone — 
Was  the  first — thank  God  you  appeared — to  marshal 

the  good  men  for  conquest, 
To  organize  into  missionary  ranks  the  vision'd  souls 

of  the  church, 
Dispatching   spirit-armored    heroes    from    Rome    to 

early  England's  soil 
And   preventing   the  annihilation   of   Christian  hope 

and  truth. 


Noble  prophet!      Little  did  you  know,  O  Augustine, 

what  you  had  done. 

Unbrazened  in  the  face,  illuminated  with  the  divine, 
With  the  crystal  eye  of  goodness  looking  light  and 

health  into  pagan  nights, 
And  cowering  Lust's  mountain  hurling  hosts, 
Followed  by  new  recruits,  since  then  the  ranks  have 

grown. 

Men  have  come  one  by  one  and  year  by  year 
Until  fifteen  thousand  heralded  volunteers  and  ninety 

thousand  native  workers 
Now  can  be  seen  from     glad     heavens     Missionary 

Ridge,  offering  light  and  character  on  heathen 

fields! 
Far-reaching,    sea-exploring,    colonizing   England  Kn 

its  youth  saved  for  enlightenment! 
Christ  inspired  it!  But  you  achieved  it! 
And  today,  as  the  oceans  and  the  continents  are 

united, 


38  WORLD   PIONEERS 

So  five  hundred  and  sixty-five  million  followers  are 
gradually  demanding  that  the  races  and  the 
peoples 

In  essential  Christianity — the  good  recognizing  in 
other  faiths — shall  be  one. 


And  mind-emancipating  Luther,  thou  art  one — 

Fearing  only  God  and  truth. 

Hating  naught  but  sham  and  falsehood! 

For  traveling  back  from  our  day  into  medieval  dark- 
ness— 

(The  chains,  hear  them  rattle!  But  also  hear  them 
snap  in  a  true  reformers  clutch 

Causing  multitudes  to  rise  from  superstition 

And  stand  upon  their  feet,  erect  in  the  freedom  of  a 
simple  faith) — 

We  there  behold  the  pioneer  of  intellectual  freedom, 

A  simple  monk,  commanding  the  low-browed  igno- 
rance of  a  whole  dark  continent  to  think, 

Awakening  the  western  world  to  science,  to  true  re- 
ligion and  to  thought; 

Until  the  mind  of  the  sullen  masses  of  Europe  now  is 
brooding, 

And  in  America  it  is  voting, 

While  the  public  mind  of  the  world  is  becoming  more 
and  more  habituated  to  reason  for  international 
concourse. 

For  the  Bible,  the  rocks  and  the  skys  are  unchained, 

Because  Luther  lived  and  honestly  dared  for  the 
truth! 


These  are  the  men — inspired   by    Him    who    altered 

times  calendar  and  began  an  Easter  day — 
Who  took  epochal  steps  for  the  world's  conquest. 
That  directly  achieved  in  encircling  the  globe. 


WORLD   PIONEERS  39 

But  there  are  others,  a  host  of  others,  worthy,  noble, 
world  pioneers. 


O  indispensable  pioneers,  see  them    moving    out   in 

history, 
Just  as  bravely,  just  as  necessary,  often  giving  in- 

spiration to  the  first, 
Most  of  them  impelled  forward    by     Columbus  and 

Copernicus  — 
The  inspirers  of  explorers,  the  pioneers  of  the  pioneers. 


Consecrated  to  humanity  and  the  world,  look  backward 

and  see  the  host  of  sphere-ward  moving  men; 
See   the   explorers  —  with   Columbus,   Balboa,   Drake, 

Desoto  opening  up  a  new  west. 
See  the  scientists  —  Darwin,  Spencer,  Huxley,  daring 

to  say  that  God  is  in  life. 
See  the  philosophers  —  Aristotle,  Palto,  Hegel,   Kant 

and  Eucken. 
See  the  missionaries  —  Judson,   Carey,  Thomas,  Liv- 

ingstone, Moffat  and  Morrison. 
See  the  inventors  —  Stevenson,  Watt,  Marconi,  Edison 

and  Bell. 
See  the  patriots  —  Solon,  Savonarola,  Cromwell,  Henry, 

Lincoln  and  Gladstone. 
Mighty  huers  through  the  forests,  — 
See  them  laboring  for  a  nation  in  some  special  task 

or  knowledge, 
But  incidentally  and  emphatically  for  the  world. 


And  turn  your  eyes  from  the  past  to  the  present  to 
observe  your  own  world  inspired  sons  ! 

See  them  moving  toward  the  international  congress 
and  the  Hague, 

The  greatest  educators,  ambassadors  and  financiers, 


40  WORLD   PIONEERS 

See  them  increasing  in  their  numbers,  for  they  also 
will  be  counted  with  the  world  pioneers. 


O  Copernicus,  we  hail  thee  for  announcing  to  timid 
minds  that  the  earth,  "it  is  a  globe." 

O  Kepler  and  Newton,  we  celebrate  you  for  assert- 
ing it  is  true. 

O  Galileo,  we  honor  and  respect  you  for  looking  su- 
perstition squarely  in  the  face  and  before  high- 
est potentates  declaring: 

"But  nevertheless  it  does  move!" 

We  commemorate  you  all  master-minded  men, 

Who  have  announced,  and  explored  and  unified  the 
globe. 

Surely  these  are  not  pygmies  nor  dwarfs. 

But  in  achievement,  they  are  Titans,  they  are  giants, 

They  are  the  immortal  pioneers  of  the  world. 


And  these  lives  moving  forward,  have  they  all  been 

lived  for  naught! 
No!     A  thousand  times  no,  O  far-sighted  men,  now 

enlisting  for  new  world  movements! 
Speak  the  message  of  the  united  seas  with  at  least  a 

prophetic  international  preamble 
And  announce  the  coming  of  essential  democracy  for 

the  world. 


WORLD    PIONEERS  41 

*THE  OLIVE  BRANCH  AS  AN  EM- 
BLEM OF  WORLD  PEACE 


In  history  the  olive  has  been  nobly  emblematic  of 
three  virtues — peace,  purity  and  industry  with  its  at- 
tendant prosperity.  And  I  mention  these  three  vir- 
tues for  which  the  olive  stands  because  we  will  never 
in  the  world  establish  peace  unless  it  is  preceded  in 
community,  state  and  nation  by  virile-mindedness, 
which  is  the  very  secret  of  industry  and  prosperity 
wherever  they  are  found. 

Whenever  the  Greek  looked  out  at  a  foothill 
mantled  with  an  olive  orchard,  gently  waving  in  the 
distance,  a  sea  of  bluish-green  leaves;  or  seized  upon 
an  olive  branch,  he  was  reminded  of  the  fact  that  no 
man  was  worthy  of  a  crown  of  olives  unles  he  was 
right-minded,  peace-loving,  and  industrious.  For,  the 
placing  of  a  crown  of  olive  twigs  on  the  brow  of  a 
person  was  the  highest  distinction  that  could  be  be- 
stowed on  a  citizen  who  had  merited  well  of  his  coun- 
try. 

Not  only  were  the  noble-minded  statesmen  and 
poets  thus  honored,  but  also  the  athletes  who,  by 
scrupulous  care  and  development  of  the  body,  gained 
physical  victories  at  the  Olympic  games.  The  harm- 
less and  commendable  victories  of  peace  always  re- 
sult from  well-developed  manhood.  And  so  on  the 
last  day  of  these  games  the  victor  received,  in  front 
of  the  temple,  the  crown  of  wild  olives  gathered  from 
the  sacred  tree.  For  the  olive  was  sacred  to  Minerva, 
the  goddess  of  wisdom  and  therefore  of  purity,  peace 
and  prosperity. 

Among  the  Romans  also  it  had  a  similar     signi- 

*An  address  delivered  in  the  interest  of  the  peace  movement 
a  week  previous  to  the  observance  of  "California  Ripe  Olive 
Day." 


42  WORLD   PIONEERS 

ficance.  The  olive  crown  of  the  Roman  conqueror  at 
an  ovation  and  those  of  the  equites  at  the  imperial 
review,  alike  typified  the  gifts  of  peace  that,  in  a  bar- 
baric age,  could  be  secured  by  victory  only.  I  say  all 
history  has  associated  the  olive  with  these  three  su- 
perb virtues,  wherever  the  olive  tree  has  grown.  But 
if  secular  history  has  offered  the  olive  branch  to  the 
conqueror  in  honor  of  a  peace  secured  through  con- 
test or  war,  the  surprising  thing  about  the  olive  in 
Biblical  history  is  that  it  represents  peace  as  coming 
directly  to  an  individual,  community,  or  nation  be- 
cause of  a  Christian-mindedness — a  type  of  mind  that 
is  controlled  by  reason,  justice,  love,  intelligence,  and 
purity  of  thought. 

For,  what  do  these  striking  verses  in  the  Prophet 
Zechariah  mean? — 

"  'What  sees't  thou?  And  I  said,  I  have  looked,  and 
behold  a  candlestick  all  of  gold  with  a  bowl  upon  the 
top  of  it  and  his  seven  lamps  thereon. 

"  'And  two  olive  trees  by  it,  one  upon  the  right  side 
of  the  bowl,  and  the  other  upon  the  left  side  there- 
on'." 

What  do  these  beautiful  verses  mean?  Simply 
this, — that  the  source  of  all  peace,  individual  and  in- 
ternational, is  that  type  of  mind  which  Christ  and 
Christian  statesmen  have.  The  two  olive  trees,  one 
on  each  side  of  the  candlestick,  stand  for  Christian 
character — one  for  the  stern  moral  character  of  the 
prophet,  the  other  for  the  mercy  of  the  true  religious 
teacher.  And  the  candlestick  stands  for  work,  for 
service  for  mankind  and  the  nations.  And  as  both  of 
the  olive  trees  supply  the  light  with  oil,  so  we  are  not 
to  seek  for  peace  on  earth  with  the  sword,  but  by  in- 
creasing the  number  of  men  whose  service  for  hu- 
manity is  controlled  by  Christian  morality  and  justice, 
mercy,  and  kindness. 

These  are  the  men  who  will  bring  peace.  God 
increase  the  number!  These  are  the  men  that  provi- 


WORLD   PIONEERS  43 

dence  can  use  to  correlate  the  nations  into  es- 
sential democracy.  These  are  the  men  who  are 
worthy  of  a  crown  of  olives !  These  are  the  men  that 
we  must  depend  upon  to  correct  the  compass  of  the 
ship  of  the  world,  as  it  moves  forward  against  the 
besetting  fury  of  antagonistic  waters,  bearing  its 
prow  day  by  day  and  year  by  year  against  the  un- 
wearied enmity  of  hateful  waves,  until  it  reaches  the 
haven  of  essential  international  peace. 


THE  INEVITABLE  DRIFT 


For  the  earth — 

The  white  enfolded ,  or  green  Easter  world, 
Warmed  by  nature's  heart  into  a  new  bursting  life — 
Like  the  universe,  the  earth  is  a  perfect  spherical  crea- 
tion, 
And  because  the  world  is  a  sphere,  the  most  perfect 

of  figures, 

Animated  and  endowed  with  purpose  and  reason, 
It  is  therefore  much  better  than  all  other  forms. 


And  so  man,  with  humanity-love  and  reason  gifted, 
Feeling  that  he  is  a  part  of  all  that  thrills  in  sod,  sky 

or  sea, 
Developed,  demands  the  fullness  of  the  globe's  life  as 

his  home. 

And  to  look  not  beyond  a  continent  or  nation, 
Is  barbaric,  retrogressive  and  sinful; 
For  He  that  said,  to  the  child  of  every  race,  "be  thou 

perfect," 
Thereby  also  commands    to    be    naturalized  to  the 

sphere. 
And   this,    O    armies   and   bigots   is    the    inevitable 

drift! 

*  Suggested  by  the  words  of  Timaeus  of  Locris. 


44  WORLD  PIONEERS 

ESSENTIAL  DEMOCRACY 


It  may  be  helpful  to  relate,  in  just  a  word,  what  is 
meant  in  this  volume  by  essential  democracy,  essential 
united  earth  and  similar  expressions.  Springing  from 
the  Christian  idea  that  all  men  are  created  equal  in 
the  sight  of  God,  in  opportunity,  it  stands  for  that  type 
of  society  in  which  the  essential  power  of  government 
is  wielded  by  the  mass  of  the  people. 

The  one  thing  that  it  is  important  to  remember  is 
that  a  monarchy  or  an  oligarchy  is  not  necessarily  an 
antithesis  of  democracy — only  absolutism  in  the  form 
of  a  monarchy  or  oligarchy  or  plutocracy  is  an  an- 
tithesis to  democratic  principles. 

Many  governments  which  live  under  the  standard 
of  a  republic  are  not  democratic  in  spirit  at  all.  Mexi- 
co has  virtually  been  a  despotism.  The  Spanish-Amer- 
ican states,  especially  until  recent  years,  were  noth- 
ing but  a  specie  of  military  tyranny.  And  France 
has  often  been  only  a  bureaucracy  in  structure  and  in 
state. 

By  essential  democracy  we  mean  the  gradual 
triumph  of  the  principles  which  emphasize  the  equal- 
ity of  man  before  God,  and  which  are  everywhere  com- 
ing into  increasing  recognition  throughout  the  world. 

One  author  says  that  before  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  all  the  great  European  states,  with  the 
exception  of  Russia  and  Turkey,  had  adopted  a  con- 
stitution limiting  the  power  of  the  crown  "and  invest- 
ing a  considerable  share  of  political  power  in  the  peo- 
ple, and  in  most  of  them  a  representative  legislature 
of  the  parliamentary  or  British  type  was  adopted." 
While  in  Switzerland,  Norway  and  Sweden  alone  on 
the  continent  democracy  has  reached  a  type  of  true 
efficiency.  And  these  triumphs  must  be  remembered 
by  the  people  for  the  sake  of  future  inspiration  and 
courage ;  and  because  it  may  help  one  to  interpret  the 


WORLD   PIONEERS  45 

present  European  war  as  an  agony  incident  to  the 
progress  of  growth. 

It  is  true  that  the  victory  of  the  principle  of  demo- 
cracy has  been  checked  by  the  persisting  of  the  mili- 
tary spirit  in  Europe  and  the  wonderful  industrial 
expansion  in  both  Europe  and  America.  In  England 
also  the  triumph  "has  been  delayed  by  the  prevalence 
of  aristocratic  traditions  which  still  grant  privileges 
and  rights  to  a  social  class  based  on  berth  and  inher- 
ited wealth."  While  in  American  the  simplicity  of 
the  colonial  life  and  the  absence  of  the  people  from 
the  aristocratic  classes  of  Europe  promoted  a  vigorous 
and  commanding  growth  of  the  democratic  ideas.  And 
this  is  why  the  nations  of  the  world  in  their  struggle 
for  democracy  are  looking  to  America,  because  she 
has  the  most  nearly  of  all  nations  realized  the  demo- 
cratic ideal. 

In  light  of  what  has  already  been  accomplished, 
how  inspiring  then  becomes  the  lure  of  the  ideal  of 
world  democracy.  Essentially  it  is  splendidly  possi- 
ble. The  people  crave  it  because  it  is  God-born.  They 
love  to  think  and  work  and  vote  for  that  far-off  di- 
vine event.  And  more  than  that  the  words,  monarchy 
and  oligarchy,  are  so  out  of  date  that  they  are  anxious 
to  be  in  spirit  and  letter  citizens  of  a  republic.  And 
wherever  the  leaven  is  working  thrones  are  in  dan- 
ger, because  great  things  are  going  to  happen  on  this 
God-guided  globe,  in  the  interest  of  humanity. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  there  are  fifty  recognized 
governments  in  the  world;  and  that  of  this  number 
twenty-six  are  republics,  twenty  limited  monarchies, 
with  democratic  features,  and  only  four  absolute  mon- 
archies. The  very  thought  of  this  is  an  inspiration  and 
shows  that  all  the  nations  are  rapidly  moving  in  the 
direction  of  essential  world  democracy. 


46  WORLD   PIONEERS 

A  PRAYER  FOR  WORLD  CITIZENS 


Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven — the  God  of  humanity 

— hallowed  be  thy  name. 
Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be   done   in   the  whole 

earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
Give  the  nations  this  day  their  daily  bread ; 
And  forgive  them  their  trespasses  as  they  forgive  the 

nations  that  trespass  against  them. 
And  lead  them  not  into  the  temptation  of  conquest  or 

self  aggrandizement,  but  deliver  them  through 

their  rulers  from  this  evil. 
For  thine  is  the  world  kingdom  and  the  power  and  the 

glory,  forever.    Amen. 

At  the  Congress  of  Religions  held  at  the  World's 
Fair  at  Chicago  in  1893,  when  the  question  came  up  as 
to  what  would  be  an  appropriate  devotional,  appeal  to 
be  used  in  opening  the  Congress,  the  representatives 
of  every  religion  and  faith  of  the  world  unanimously 
agreed  that  the  Lord's  Prayer  found  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  would  be  acceptable  to  all.  And  the  one 
given  above  is  an  adaption  from  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
given  in  order  that  it  may  be  seen  how  well  its  spirit 
could  be  adapted  to  world  democracy. 


VI 


World  Citizens 


48  WORLD    CITIZENS 

*PRECEPTS  FOR  WORLD  CITIZENS 


Never  allow  the  glory  of  the  world  vision  to  keep  you 
from  performing  your  daily  duty,  be  it  humble 
or  great;  remembering  that  you  are  a  part  of 
the  whole  and  that  the  fullness  of  the  worlds 
life  will  not  be  expressed  if  one  member  of  the 
body  fails  to  perform  its  function.  Remember 
that  vision  is  worthless  unless  it  helps  you  to 
take  hold  of  the  handle  of  service  with  a  firm 
grasp  and  a  new  enthusiasm;  but  also  that  it  is 
necessary  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  world 
vision  a  few  moments  at  the  dawn  of  each  day. 


Do  not  be  deceived  into  looking  upon  national  bigotry 
as  patriotism.  For  the  interests  of  humanity 
are  always  primary  to  the  interests  of  the  na- 
tion. What  is  good  for  the  whole  world  is 
good  for  each  continent  and  government. 


Begin  to  urge  a  national  individualism  among  estab- 
lished nations  which  insists  less  on  rights  and 
more  on  duties;  which  recognizes  that  the 
greed  for  territory  is  the  "original  sin  of  the 
nations."  God  divided  the  world  into  nations 
so  that  they  might  help,  not  destroy  each  other ; 
and  when  they  admit  this  they  will  begin  to  in- 
augurate essential  world  democracy. 


Cultivate  the  spirit  of  "give  and  take";  recognizing 
that  there  is  good  to  be  absorbed  from  other 
nations  into  the  international  life  as  well  as  from 
your  own. 


WORLD    CITIZENS  49 

Do  not  labor  for  a  world  peace  which  is  to  depend  on 
"treaties,  or  skillful  diplomacy  or  mutual  fear 
and  equal  preparedness  for  war;"  but  for  one 
which  is  based  "on  the  common  interests  and 
sympathies  and  on  the  mutual  needs  and  serv- 
ices of  a  world  organism,  in  which  each  nation 
is  a  member  of  a  world  body-politic." 


Urge  a  more  mature  development  of  an  international 
conscience;  remembering  that  an  ethical  stan- 
dard can  be  established  for  the  world  as  it  was 
evolved  from  the  individual  to  the  tribal  and 
then  to  the  national  standard  of  ethics. 


Do  not  forget  that  a  man  of  another  race  is  not  a 
different  kind  of  animal  than  yourself.  For 
one  has  well  said:  "The  strangest  thing  to  me 
is  that  people  who  are  so  different  are  so  much 
alike." 


Encourage  the  spread  of  the  new  knowledge  which 
has  given  to  us  a  clearer  understanding  of  dis- 
ease and  through  eugenics  a  vital  interest  in 
those  racial  qualities  which  shall  improve  fu- 
ture generations,  remembering  that  when  the 
bodies  and  minds  of  the  races  are  at  their  best 
they  will  be  more  open  to  reason  and  more  cor- 
dial to  the  spirit  of  harmony  among  the  nations. 

***** 

Do  not  be  too  much  alarmed  about  the  talk  of  for- 
eign labor,  or  interracial  marriage.  But  take 
up  the  torch  of  enlightenment  and  fulfilll  to- 
day's duty,  remembering  that  in  due  time  the 
co-operative  council  of  the  Occidental  and 
Oriental  mind  will  see  that  all  problems  are 


50  WORLD   CITIZENS 

justly  solved  according  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  whole  race. 

***** 

Insist  that  as  soon  as  possible  there  be  inaugurated  a 
permanent  international  court  at  the  Hague, 
which  shall  be  endowed  with  the  power  to  act 
as  well  as  discuss,  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of 
the  whole  world. 

***** 

Finally,  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  a  faith  in  a  deity 
which  is  not  tribal  nor  national  but  the  God  of 
humanity,  that  you  may  be  able  to  defeat 
prejudice.  Stand,  therefore,  having  your  man- 
hood girt  about  with  a  broad  intelligence;  hav- 
ing on  the  breastplate  of  righteousness  wrought 
from  the  essential  morality  of  the  races.  Hav- 
ing your  feet  shod  with  the  gospel  of  world 
peace,  your  judgment  made  discreet  with  the 
gospel  of  contact  and  your  soul  made  heroic 
for  service  by  an  invincible  faith  in  a  better 
humanity,  such  as  was  possessed  by  the  Son 
of  Man. 

*I  am  indebted  to  Josiah   Strong  for  some  of  the  sugges- 
tions in  these  precepts. 


WORLD    CITIZENS  51 

BEAUTITUDES  FOR  WORLD 
STATESMEN 


Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit.  For  in  leaving  the 
prejudice  of  restricted  nationalism  they  will 
gain  the  inspiration  of  the  world  view  and  pos- 
sess more  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 


Blessed  are  the  meek,  those  possessing  the  childlike 
but  world  view  point  of  Christ,  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  environment  of  the  earth. 


Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness. For  the  ethics  of  true  religion  is  to 
be  sifted  from  the  chaff  of  superstition,  and 
righteousness  is  to  cover  the  whole  earth  as 
the  waters  cover  the  seas. 


Blessed  are  the  merciful  nations.  For  they  shall  ob- 
tain mercy  in  return  from  other  nations,  and 
learn  that  impulsive  retaliation  is  too  costly 
and  that  patient  and  honorable  conciliation 
makes  for  world  peace  and  national  prosperity. 


Blessed  are  the  peacemakers.  For  now  that  the  na- 
tions have  entered  through  the  united  seas  into 
a  neighborhood;  they — by  encouraging  disarm- 
ament and  teaching  the  gospel  of  contact  as 
well  as  good  will — will  hasten  the  day  when  the 
nations  can  live  together  without  war  in  the 
spirit  of  council  and  peace. 


WORLD    CITIZENS 


C°lor'  a»d  shall  be 

as  a  pioneer  ° 


***** 
Blessed  are  ye  when    men    shall    revile    you 

f  and  S3y  ^  manner  °f  *%•** 
•       S°,  Persec«te<3  they  Him  who 

a11  the  world  ^d  Preach  the 
creature-"   Rejoice  and  be  ex! 

in  heaven 


*  ' 


***** 

Blessed  are  these  pathfinders  who  do  not  fear     the 
seas,  for  they  have  discovered  that  the  ve?v 


WORLD    CITIZENS  53 

THE  WORLD'S  NEIGHBORHOOD 


Remember  that  a  new  world  neighborhood  has  been 
created,  bringing  important  points  on  the  globe 
into  closer  proximity  by  one-half  to  two-thirds 
of  the  former  distance,  through  the  short  route 
of  the  Panama  Canal. 


Therefore,  a  new  commandment  is  given  to  each 
nation,  namely,  "to  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self," by  entering  by  thought  and  co-operation 
into  such  policies  as  will  make  for  the  best  inter- 
est of  the  entire  new  world  neighborhood. 
***** 

Do  not  think  that  other  nations  are  unapproachable. 
But  remember  that  North  and  South  America, 
with  all  Europe,  "are  more  closely  related  in 
point  of  time  and  common  interests  than  were 
the  original  Thirteen  States  when  the  necessi- 
ties of  commerce  forced  them  to  form  the  com- 
pact of  the  Union;  that  the  two  geographical 
extremes  of  the  colonies  were  as  far  separated 
as  Berlin  and  the  Barbary  States  or  as  London 
and  the  Black  Sea." 

***** 

Do  not  think  that  the  short  route  through  the  canal  is 
merely  a  path  for  commerce's  ships,  or  only  a 
highway  for  navies  or  state  dignitaries;  but  re- 
member also  that  it  is  a  short  route  to  the 
Hague  and  international  congresses. 
***** 

And  do  not  fail  to  recall  that  brave  men  opened 
up  this  international  highway — not  through  for- 
ests or  smoking  prairies,  but  through  moun- 
tains, swamps,  rocks  and  hills — in  order  to 
hasten  the  day  of  essential  world  democracy. 


54  WORLD  CITIZENS 

So  think  clearly  enough  and  you  will  surely  see  that 
the  completion  of  the  Panama  Canal  is  virtually 
the  discovery  of  a  basis  of  essential  world 
unity.  He  who  walks  by  land  or  sails  by  sea 

can  now  read  the  will  of  God. 
***** 

With  increasing  numbers  we  are  now  arriving  at  the 
day  that  Whitman  speaks  of  in  the  following 
words : 

"The  main  shapes  arise! 

Shapes  of  democracy  total,  result  of  centuries 
Shapes  ever  projecting  other  shapes, 
Shapes  of  turbulent  manly  cities, 
Shapes  of  the  friends  and  home-givers  of  the 
whole  earth, 

Shapes  bracing  the  earth  and  braced    by    the 
whole  earth." 

***** 

The  key  that  is  in  tune  with  all  other  keys  of  its  own 
instrument  is  in  tune  with  all  harmony  on  the 
earth.  And  the  man  that  has  attuned  his  life 
to  justice  and  liberty  in  the  community  in  which 
he  lives  is  in  accord  with  freemen  in  every 
land,  loves  the  vision  of  world-wide  liberty  and 
prays  for  its  realization. 

***** 

Tagore,  the  Hindu  poet,  says :  "I  have  learned  though 
our  tongues  are  different  and  our  habits  dissim- 
ilar, at  the  bottom  our  hearts  are  one.  The 
monsoon  clouds,  generated  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile,  fertilize  the  far  distant  shores  of  the 
Ganges;  ideas  may  have  to  cross  from  east  to 
western  shores  to  find  a  welcome  in  men's 
hearts.  East  is  east  and  west  is  west — God  for- 
bid that  it  should  be  otherwise — but  the  twain 
must  meet  in  amity,  peace  and  mutual  under- 
standing ;  and  their  meeting  will  be  all  the  more 
fruitful  because  of  their  differences;  it  must 
lead  to  holy  wedlock  before  the  common  altar 
of  humanity." 


VII 


The  Sea's  Highest  Decree  i 


56  SEA'S    HIGHEST    DECREE 

WHAT  ARE  THE  SEAS  ABOUT? 


The  deeper  one  goes  into  the  subject  of  world  demo- 
cracy the  more  one  is  convinced  of  the  necessity  of 
calling  to  one's  aid  the  help  of  true  religion  in  formu- 
lating a  world  consciousness. 

Walt  Whitman,  whom  many  may  regard  as  some- 
what unwise  in  some  of  his  utterances,  was  absolutely 
right  when  he  intimated  that  world  democracy  could 
not  be  formulated  without  religion. 

And  today  there  is  nothing  that  is  going  to  help 
people  so  effectively  to  grasp  and  feel  at  home 
with  the  ideal  of  an  essential  union  of  the  nations,  as 
the  modern  teaching  of  the  immanence  of  God.  If  we 
are  a  part  of  the  whole  world,  and  if  God  is  in  the 
seas  as  well  as  the  flowers  and  hills  then  we  will  not 
dread  them,  for  they  are  our  inspiration  and  helpers. 

Not  only  does  the  teaching  of  the  immanence  of  God 
in  the  seas  help  the  nations  into  closer  fellowship. 
But  what  is  more  than  that,  it  helps  the  soul  of  man 
to  find  in  the  waters  a  purpose.  The  seas  themselves 
seem  to  be  up  to  something. 

No  man  felt  this  secret  of  nature  with  keener  ap- 
preciation than  the  late  Prof.  J.  J.  Blaisdell  of  Beloit 
College,  Wis.  For  in  one  of  his  lectures,  the  notes  of 
which,  I  still  have,  he  says: 

"Nature  is  expressive  of  a  purpose.  And  no  one 
has  gotten  the  good  of  nature  until  he  has  got  the 
momentum  of  the  mighty  work  that  it  is  working. 
Its  face  is  steadily  set  forward.  It  is  not  static.  It 
is  not  a  current  running  down.  It  is  an  achievement. 
When  you  stop  and  think  of  it  you  are  led  to  reflect 
that  its  onward  movement  is  so  stupendous  toward 
the  working  out  of  a  far  off  divine  event  that  if  you 
should  throw  yourself  across  its  track  you  would  be 
annihilated  in  a  moment. 


SEA'S    HIGHEST    DECREE  57 

"I  have  stood  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  on  a 
stormy  day  in  December  and  the  rhythm  of  that 
lake  seemed  to  be  the  echo  of  the  march  of  the  uni- 
verse treading  its  victorious  way  into  the  future.  It 
is  about  something — its  face  is  steadfastly  set  to  go 
to  Jerusalem.  The  firmness  of  great  souls  is  but  its 
child  and  copy;  and  responded  to,  it  is  the  breeder  of 
great  souls. 

"Now  until  we  become  alive  to  the  expressiveness  of 
purpose  in  nature,  a  purpose  expressed  in  feeling  and 
ready  to  lackey  man  in  his  pilgrimage,  we  fail  to  un- 
derstand nature  and  lose  much  of  the  blessedness  of 
living  in  this  world. 

"And  my  simple  question  is,  how  comes  about  this 
expressiveness?  Why,  simply  there  is  a  person  who 
is  projecting  himself  through  this  embodiment  and  it 
is  the  revelation  of  him,  just  as  our  friends*  ways  ex- 
press the  person  of  the  friend  behind  them." 

How  grand  are  those  words!  And  how  helpful  to 
men  who  desire  the  very  co-operation  of  the  seas  in 
fulfilling  their  plans  in  unifying  the  races!  For  if 
Prof.  Blaisdell  was  thus  inspired  with  the  thought  of 
the  co-operation  of  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  with 
the  historic  purposes  of  man,  what  should  the  true 
freeman  feel  as  he  looks  out  over  the  Pacific?  I  can 
only  tell  you  what  I  have  felt  in  the  words  on  the  fol- 
lowing page : 


58  SEA'S   HIGHEST    DECREE 

THE  ALTRUISM  OF  THE  SEA 


Free  from  the  intrusion  of  littleness, 
Standing  on  the  shores  of  our  great  Western  Sea, 
My  groping  thoughts,  O  sea, 
Now  grapple  with  thy  tempestuous  waves. 
My  ecstatic  soul  argues  with  thy  gales  for  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  message  flowing  clean     and 
strong  from  the  "million-acred  meadows"  of  the 
out-lying  seas. 
My  straining  ear  listens  to  the  clamorous,  reiterating 

almost  uninvokable  voice  of  thy  tides. 
For  able  to  speak  to  man,  like  brooks  and  flowers, 
I  am  inquiring,  what  you  are  about,  the  knowledge 
of  your  place  in  the  amelioration  of  the  world? 


And  lo,  now  nature's  cord  is  struck, 

The  secret  word  is  caught, 

And  this  is  what  I  hear 

As  again  I  plead,  "thou  are  not  a  purposeless,  lifeless 

plangent  deep. 

O  great  sea,  who's  purpose  doest  thou  fulfill? 
What  are  thou  almightily  about,  what  doing?" 


"Doing !"  seems  to  murmur  its  sustained  voice  with  its 
rhythmic  storming  of  my  soul, 

"Doing!  I  am  doing  what  man  is  doing,  what  the 
nations  are  evolving,  what  the  eternal,  creative 
spirit  living  within  me  is  urging, 

I  am  resolutely  moving — crest,  wave,  tide  and  ponder- 
ous deep  in  sympathy  with  world  harmony,  to- 
ward democracy. 

Moving  from  ponderous  deep,  tide,  wave  and  crest 
toward  distant  lands. 

Earger — so  providenced — to  carry  to  all  pagan  shores, 


SOBA'S    HIGHEST    DECREE  69 

The  ships,  the  statesmen  and  the  life  giving    trade 
winds  of  democracy." 


"It  is  true,  astonishingly,"  I  said, 
"Yes  now  I  sense  it  and  I  feel  it. 
And  what  an  unconquerable  will,  what  a  purpose ! 
The  very  shores,  they  tremble  with  its  resolution, 
For  with  man  even  the  seas  are  sympathically  for 
freemen  at  work!" 


And  then  looking  outward  and  skyward,  the  God  of 
our  sea  going  fathers,  the  spirit  of  the  very  God 
of  Hosts,  awoke  this  stronger  message  to  my 
thought : 

"Fear  not,  O  sons  of  Pilgrims 

For  the  waters  engulfed  not  Columbus'  freemen  when 
they  sailed  a  shoreless  sea, 

Nor  was  the  Mayflower  immeshed  in  the  black  jaws 
of  an  angry  deep. 

And  yours  are  ships  of  fate ! 

He  who  omnipotently  palms  the  oceans  pilots  them. 

To  let  them  pass — O  ships — to  bear  them  safely  on, 

The  tides,  the  storms  and  the  winds  are  stayed. 
#    *    *    *    * 

"Move  on,  move  on  befriended  by  an  illimitable  peace. 
Move  on,  move  on  to  every  slave  desecrated  shore ! 
Move  on,  the  harmless,  but  forward  momentum  of 

these  tides  will  take  you  on  and  on. 
For  the  Creator  worketh  hitherto  and  they  must  work. 
For  He  hath  given  "to  the  sea  His  decree." 
Move  on  to  Hindu,  Confucian  and  Teutonic  shores. 
O  ships  of  freemen,  sail  on !" 


"Winnow  me  through  with  thy  keen,  clean  breath 
Wind  with  tang  of  the  sea." 

— Ketchum. 


VIII 


Helps  to  Interpretation 


62  HELPS  TO  INTERPRETATION 

HOW  TO  BECOME  A  WORLD 
CITIZEN 


To  become  a  good  world  citizen,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  distribute  oneself  by  travel  everywhere — although 
travel  is  most  valuable — any  more  than  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  a  worthy  citizen  of  the  United  States 
to  cross  the  continent  or  have  homes  in  both  Califor- 
nia and  New  York,  desirable  as  that  may  be. 

Nor  would  one  lose  any  interest  in  his  nation — re- 
membering that  only  a  bigoted  and  selfish  nationality 
does  harm ;  and  that  even  in  a  federation  of  the  nations 
of  the  world  each  individual  nation,  like  each  indi- 
vidual State  in  the  Union,  would  have  its  own  inter- 
ests and  would  have  to  do  its  part  towards  express- 
ing the  life  of  the  whole. 

Of  course  with  the  realization  of  a  federation  of  the 
world  in  the  future,  there  would  be  public  world  citi- 
zens as  well  as  private  world  citizens,  just  as  there 
are  public  and  private  citizens  in  every  nation;  and 
the  public  world  leaders  should  necessarily  have  a 
higher  training,  a  wider  experience  and  a  broader 
travel  than  the  private  world  citizen,  judging  from 
the  standpoint  of  leadership  alone. 

But  independent  of  these  things  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  every  man — private  or  public — can  acquire 
full  world  citizenship  by  learning  to  think  in  world 
terms  and  developing  the  world  consciousness  which 
makes  you  feel  that  you  are  a  necessary  part  of  all 
that  exists.  And  this  can  be  done  by  developing  an 
unprejudiced  love  for  humanity,  by  persistently  oppos- 
ing war,  by  keeping  in  touch  with  world  statesmen  and 
reading  world  literature,  by  acquiring  a  love  for  na- 
ture and  the  seas  which  comes  from  a  faith  in  God, 
by  helping  to  unify  the  world's  languages  and  re- 
ligions, by  advocating  constantly  a  central  world  gov- 
ernment for  the  nations,  by  traveling  when  one  can 


HEDPS  TO  INTERPRETATION  63 

and  by  making  it  as  easy  for  people  to  travel  as  pos- 
sible, by  attending  all  public  meetings  that  deal  with 
international  movements,  by  never  losing  sight — es- 
pecially in  the  hour  of  perplexity,  redicule  and  hard- 
ship— of  the  world  vision  which  is  championed  on 
these  pages  and  by  becoming  sanely  religious  so  that 
you  will  feel  that  the  same  good  spirit  throbs  in  your 
breast  that  quickens  the  whole  universe  into  harmony 
and  beauty  as  well  as  every  flower  and  living  thing  on 
the  globe. 

Here  are  some  of  the  exceptional  world  citizens. 
Hear  them  talk  in  their  own  words: 

Whitman : 

"There  is  no  trade  nor  employment  but  the  young 

man  following  it  may  become  a  hero, 
And  there  is  no  object  so  soft  but  it  makes  a  hub 

for  the  wheel'd  universe, 
And  I  say  to  any  man  or  woman,  let  your  soul  stand 

cool  and  composed  before  a  million  universes. 


Browning's  Christian  Creed: 
"That  face  far  from  vanishes,  ever  grows 
Or  decomposes  only  to  recompose 
Become  my  universe  that  feels  and  knows." 

***** 

Emerson — 

"I  am  the  owner  of  a  sphere 

Of  the  seven  stars  and  solar  year 

Of  Caeser's  hand  and  Plato's  brain 

Of  the  Lord  Christ's  heart  and  Shakespeare's  strain. 


And  so  the  star  that  shines  from  above  moves  on, 
calling  all  noble  souls  to  move  out  by  sea  and  land — 
with  the  God  who  sheperds  us  with  His  love  and  joy 
everywhere  as  the  guide — to  the  grandest  work  of 
human  history,  the  work  of  essentially  unifying  the 


€4  HELPS  TO  INTERPRETATION 

globe.  And  as  they  go  forward  with  this  stupendous 
task,  they  will  not  forget  to  pluck  the  flowers  by  the 
wayside,  look  into  the  faces  of  children  and  take  the 
hand  of  their  fellows;  but  rather  they  will  do  it  with 
a  grander  simplicity  and  a  better  humanity. 


THE  KEY  TO  THE  VISION 


The  very  last  and  most  important  thing  that  must 
be  said  on  the  subject  of  world  consciousness  is  that 
man  himself  is  the  key  to  the  vision — is  that  man  is 
the  fullest  expression  of  God  and  that  man  can  con- 
quer nature  and  build  nations,  republics  and  a  world 
democracy.  The  immanence  of  God  in  man  is  the  se- 
cret of  sanity  and  balance  in  the  study  of  this  ques- 
tion and  also  the  power  that  is  going  to  make  the 
vision  a  reality. 

And  I  have  purposely  refrained  from  saying  any- 
thing about  the  superb  position  that  man  holds  in  this 
mighty  work  in  order  that  you  might  feel  the  grand- 
eur of  the  world  vision  through  the  power  of  the  seas ; 
might  feel  the  awful  majesty  of  the  vision,  its  divine 
glory — in  order  that  people  might  be  arrested  and 
caught  up  in  its  mighty  enthusiasm — before  discov- 
ering that  the  secret  of  bringing  it  to  pass  is  the  whole- 
some secret  of  a  simple  human  life.  O  wonder  of 
wonders,  the  simple  key  that  balances  our  thought 
and  puts  our  feet  on  the  earth  in  this  hour  of  tre- 
mendous vision  is  in  man  himself ;  is  right  here  in  our 
own  lives — is  in  the  engineer,  the  educator,  the  mis- 
sionary, the  preacher,  the  financier,  all  of  whom  can 
rise  superior  to  nature  and  gain  dominion  over  the 
earth.  Let  me  express  what  I  mean  in  the  following 
on  "Balboa"  who  is  so  intimately  associated  historical- 
ly with  the  Panama  canal  and  with  the  Pacific  ocean, 
as  its  discoverer: 


HELPS  TO  INTERPRETATION  65 

BALBOA 


Can.  a  man  discover  a  sea? 

Can  a  human  eye  that's  sealed  by  a  night  and  sun- 
dazed  by  day  discover  a  sea? 

Discover,  O  discover  a  far-going,  a  far-coming  end- 
less, sky-  meeting,  infinitely  finite  sea? 

Could  a  Balboa  discover  a  sea? 

*     *     *     *     * 

Yes— 

A  dew-drop  can  orb  a  sun. 
A  telescope  can  enfold  the  stars  of  a  sky. 
A  pure  heart  can  incarnate  God. 
And  an  eye  opened  by  fate,  visioned  by  providence, 
looking  out  from  a  Panama  peak  can  discover 

an  endless  sea! 

***** 

And  great  explorer — could  you  arise  and  speak — 

How  did  you  feel  when  you  discovered  a  sea? 

Did  you  feel  like  a  babe  first  opening  its  eyes  from 
marge  to  marge  on  heaven's  blue  skys? 

Did  you  feel  like  a  mariner  sailing  the  ship  of  the 
Earth  out  through  the  gates  of  the  dawn? 

Did  you  feel  like  a  soul  just  escaping  from  its  clay  out 
into  the  joy  of  the  freedom  of  space  into  a  home 
built  from  the  light  of  the  suns? 

Looking,  looking,  looking  far  outward,  how  did  you 
feel  when  you  first  saw  the  sea? 

Descending,  walking  towards  the  shores,  approaching 
the  waters ;  how  did  you  feel  when,  with  the  in- 
effable shock  of  a  glorious  discovery,  you  first 

touched  the  sea? 

***** 

And  great  explorer — could  you  but  speak — 

What  would  you  say  to  a  whole  coast  with  pilgrims 

from  all  the  world  inquiring  of  thee? 
What  would  you  say,  standing  now  at  the  mingling 

of  two  vast  seas. 
Looking  west,  west,  west  until  west  becomes  east, 


66  HELPS  TO  INTERPRETATION 

Looking   east,  east,  east  until  east  becomes  west, 
You  could  not  declare  consistently  that  this  is  for 

England,  for  Germany  or  America  alone. 
But  inspired  by  the  thought  of  the  hour,  we  feel  sure 

you  would  exclaim: 

"I — the  first  to  touch  both  the  hemispheric  waters — 
Hear  me,  all  nations,  O  hear  me, 
Claim   the   intermingling   oceans   for  'The    Republic 

of  The  United  Seas/  " 

***** 

Yes  a  man  can  discover  a  sea  and  also  cross  a  sea 

And  also  chart  a  sea  and  even  unite  the  seas, 

And  civilize  and  uplift  all  the  people  in  the  nations 

bordering  and  tributary  to  their  shores. 
Made  in  the  image  of  God,  a  little  lower  than  the 

angels. 
He  can  gain  full  dominion  over    its    wide    flowing 

waters, 

And  on  the  pillars  of  courage  build  essential,  earth- 
wide  democracy. 

***** 

Strong  men,  this,  then  is  the  hour's  decree! 
Look  upward  in  faith,  move  outward  in  service 
From  the  harbor  of  the  present  to  the  wide-emancipat- 
ing future  that  is  to  be. 


A  NEW  INSPIRATION  FOR 
LITERATURE 


A  new  inspiration  for  literature  is  at  hand.  The 
times,  with  its  mighty  impetus  for  world  movements, 
more  than  ever  demands  a  class  of  literature  that  has 
at  its  heart  the  world  consciousness.  And  the  man 
that  is  to  write  the  literature,  it  seems  to  me,  must 
familiarize  himself  with  three  master-minds: 

Walt  Whitman,  who  chatted  in  terms  of  world 
democracy  and  whose  spirit  was  as  readily  attuned  to 
the  earth  as  to  the  dew  drop  and  flower. 

Homer,  the  blind  bard  of  Greece,  the  masterful  in- 


HELPS  TO  INTERPRETATION  67 

terpreter  of  the  power  of  the  oceans,  who  talked  about 
the  seas  as  easily  as  the  ordinary  man  converses  about 
village  events. 

Christ,  the  child-like  but  universal  minded  Leader 
of  the  human  race,  who  has  quickened  men  to  move 
toward  the  essential  unity  of  the  races  and  nations. 

Literature  can  now  come  to  its  own  as  never  before. 
Writers  of  fiction  now  have  a  new  and  superb  oppor- 
tunity of  introducing  a  majestic  back  ground  to  their 
stories.  Men  everywhere  feel  the  lure  of  a  new  inspira- 
tion. They  want  to  talk  and  write  in  grander  terms, 
bringing  new  glory  to  the  simple  and  common  place. 
And  they  are  sure  to  break  forth  in  the  song  of  a  better 
literature,  orchestral  with  the  spirit  of  world  conscious- 
ness and  broadly  sympathetic  with  the  yearning  for 
essential  world  democracy.  Commerce,  science  and  re- 
ligion are  active  in  world  movements,  and  what  a 
mighty  help  it  will  be  toward  the  realization  of  the 
ideal  when  many  writers  of  fiction  and  poetry,  as  well 
as  of  history  and  politics,  begin  to  take  advantage  of 
this  opportunity.  I  can  think  of  no  higher  calling  that 
can  engage  the  attention  of  man  than  that  of  trying  to 
express  the  inspiration  of  these  days  in  a  worthy  lit- 
erature; which  shall  be  majestically  spiritual,  and  will 
tell  what  the  unsealed  eyes  see,  microscoped  and  tel- 
escoped to  find  the  message  of  nature  and  history 
thrilling  with  a  divine  life. 

And  when  the  masses  who  have  not  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  travel,  catch  the  spirit  of  a  world  patriotism 
and  learn  to  think  and  talk  in  world  terms — interested 
not  only  in  their  city,  their  state,  their  nation,  but  also 
in  their  world  movements, — then  a  world  government 
unifying  the  nations  will  be  more  easily  formulated.  I 
say,  when  the  people  once  glimpse  the  vision  of  world 
peace,  world  harmony  (or  democracy)  in  its  full 
grandeur,  a  spirit  will  be  aroused  that  all  the  warring 
kings  and  illegitimate  trusts  on  earth  cannot  check! 
David  Starr  Jordan  well  says  in  a  most  capable  and 
thorough  series  of  articles  on  "How  to  End  War"  that 


68  HELPS  TO  INTERPRETATION 

"people  under  the  stress  of  immediate  excitement 
might  vote  for  war,  especially  if  told  of  some  vicious 
aggression."  How  true  that  is!  And  we  should  also 
add  that  there  is  a  cure,  a  substitute  for  this  false  ex- 
citement. For  the  excitement  about  war  is  only  coarse 
vaudeville  in  comparison  with  the  noble  passion  that 
takes  hold  of  men's  lives  when  they  become  interested 
in  the  struggle  and  movements  that  make  for  world 
harmony. 

And  to  create  this  higher  enthusiasm — which  can 
never  be  quenched  when  once  it  is  kindled  in  a  man's 
heart — the  constructive  workers  need  the  co-operation 
and  help  of  the  deepest  and  clearest  visioned  men  of 
letters  in  every  nation.  The  task  of  reconstruction 
will  be  so  stupendous  that  the  orator,  the  press, 
the  writer,  must  be  enlisted  to  bring  the  vision  to  the 
people  so  that  they  and  their  rulers  can  be  more  read- 
ily led  by  the  constructive  international  statesman  into 
essential  world  democracy. 

And  it  is  the  uniting  of  the  two  hemispheric  seas 
that  so  irresistibly  suggests  the  essential  union  of  the 
nations.  There  never  was  an  Exposition  held,  nor  ever 
will  be,  affording  such  a  vision  of  world  unity ;  not 
only  because  of  the  union  of  these  two  oceans  associ- 
ated with  this  event,  but  also  because  of  the  world 
war,  which  cannot  avoid  being  interpreted  by  some  of 
the  most  penetrating  thinkers  as  the  darkness  before 
the  dawn.  Any  man  of  clear  vision  who  stands  with 
Goethals  at  the  mingling  of  the  two  hemispheric  bodies 
of  water  looking  through  the  clouds  of  war  cannot  help 
but  speak  prophetically.  The  world  has  been  brought 
together  geographically.  It  will  also  be  brought  into 
essential  harmony  politically  and  racially.  The  new 
proximity  of  the  nations  created  by  the  canal  demands 
it.  And  above  all,  it  is  the  inevitable  drift  of  things. 
Blessed  then  are  the  people  that  have  the  vision !  And 
twice  blessed  are  those  who  give  it  to  others!  And 
above  all,  blessed  are  the  men  who  are  laboring  to 
make  the  vision  a  reality ! 


IX 


Sea  to  Land 


70  SEA  TO  LAND 

FROM  SEA  TO  TREE  AND  FRUIT 


The  following  two  chapters  were  prepared  for  spe- 
cial occasions  commemorative  of  typical  California 
life.  The  one  on  "The  Olive  in  Biblical  History"  was 
written  by  the  author  in  compliance  to  a  request  from 
"The  California  Ripe  Olive  Day  Association"  to  be 
used  in  the  observance  of  the  first  California  Ripe 
Olive  Day,  March  31st,  1915,  at  the  Panama-Pacific 
International  Exposition. 

The  chapter  on  "The  Modern  Parable  of  the  Orange 
Tree"  was  delivered  as  a  special  address  at  Porter- 
ville,  California,  just  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the 
harvesting  of  the  golden  fruit  in  that  section,  and  is 
in  keeping  with  "Orange  Day"  as  observed  at  the  Ex- 
position. 

And  it  is  well  for  us  to  close  the  book  with  these 
chapters  for  the  world  view  only  helps  us  to  appre- 
ciate the  inland  beauty  more,  and  the  valleys  with 
their  restricted  vision  only  prepare  us  in  return  for 
the  world  enterprises  again. 


SEA  TO  LAND  71 

THE  OLIVE  IN  BIBLICAL  HISTORY 


In  the  Old  Testament  times  the  olive  was  rec- 
ognized as  the  "fruit  of  fruits."  But  during  the 
hurry  and  rush  of  Western  progress  a  gross  oversight 
has  been  committed,  especially  on  the  part  of  the 
American  people,  in  failing  to  fully  appreciate  its 
value;  and  as  a  result  the  olive  has  not  as  yet  gained 
its  true  leadership  here  among  the  elect  of  the  trees, 
composed  of  the  orange,  pear,  apple,  pomegranate, 
fig,  and  date. 

But  the  oversight  has  been  discovered  by  the  pio- 
neers of  the  olive  industry  in  America,  and  the  signs 
of  the  time  indicate  that  the  olive  will  be  known  here 
as  it  was  in  the  Holy  Land.  And,  with  the  unpreced- 
ented developments  in  the  ripe  olive  industry,  it  has  an 
opportunity  of  becoming  even  more  favorably  known 
than  ever  before. 

By  a  careful  study,  recall  the  place  that  the  olive  held 
in  the  old  Promised  Land  and  you  will  get  a  faint  idea 
of  what  we  mean  by  the  rediscovery  of  the  olive  in  this 
new  Promised  Land  situated  here  on  the  coast  of  our 
Western  empire. 

Where  the  olive  originated,  we  do  not  know.  Some 
think  in  Syria.  Others  are  not  afraid  to  say  that  it 
is  as  old  as  man  himself.  For  not  only  did  it  grow 
previous  to  the  flood,  as  is  indicated  by  the  dove  bring- 
ing an  olive  leaf  to  the  ark.  But  some  actually  main- 
tain that  it  was  one  of  the  trees  that  grew  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  wherever  that  may  have  been.  And 
whether  such  an  assertion  is  far-fetched  or  not,  there 
is  absolutely  no  reason  why  this  wonderfully  fruitful 
tree  should  not  have  been  one  of  the  very  first  trees 
appearing  on  the  globe  for  the  sustenance  of  human 
life. 

But  wherever  it  came  from,  of  this  Bible  students 
are  absolutely  certain — that  it  was  the  most  popular 


72  SEA  TO  LAND 

tree  in  the  Promised  Land.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  have 
been  one  of  the  inducements  that  led  the  children  of 
Israel  escaping  from  Egyptian  captivity  to  move  to- 
ward Canaan,  the  Land  of  Promise  with  an  irresistible 
expectancy.  For  the  Promised  Land  that  they 
were  to  enter  is  described — a  description  which  would 
most  accurately  apply  to  our  own  California — vividly 
in  the  Bible  as  follows: 

"For  the  Lord  thy  God  bringeth  them  into  a 
good  land,  a  land  of  brooks  and  water,  of  foun- 
tains and  depths  that  spring  out  of  valleys  and 
hills.  A  land  of  vines  and  fig  trees  and  pome- 
granates, of  olive  and  honey." 

And  not  only  were  these  freemen  from  Egypt  en- 
couraged by  the  fact  that  they  would  find  the  olive 
with  other  trees  flourishing  in  the  Promised  Land; 
but  they  were  also  commanded,  according  to  the 
author  of  Deuteronomy,  to  recognize  its  superior  im- 
portance and  cultivate  it  everywhere,  in  these  clearly 
put  words:  "Thou  shalt  have  olive  trees  through  all 
thy  coasts."  And  today  the  very  names  of  different 
localities  in  Palestine,  such  as  the  Mount  of  Olives 
and  Gethsemane — that  is,  Gath-Semen,  which  means 
the  "oil  press" — indicates  the  love  of  those  people  for 
the  beautiful  olive  groves,  which  gently  nodded  at 
each  other  across  roads  and  lanes  when  wooed  by  the 
winds,  even  as  they  do  in  California,  this  newer  Land 
of  Promise. 

No  one  saw  how  conspicuously  and  romantically 
the  olive  was  associated  with  the  early  Bible  history 
of  these  people,  as  well  as  the  prophet  Jotham,  who 
spoke  the  famous  fable  of  the  olive — in  which  he  un- 
mistakably infers  that  people  should  recognize  it  as 
the  most  important  of  the  fruits — in  these  striking 
and  beautiful  words,  found  in  the  book  of  Judges: 
"And  Jotham  went  and  stood  on  the  top  of 
Mount  Gerizim  and  lifted  up  his  voice  and  said, 
'Hearken  unto  me,  ye  men  of  Shechem.     *     *     * 


SEA  TO  LAND  78 

The  trees  went  forth  on  a  time  to  anoint  a  king 
over  them  and  they  said  unto  the  olive  tree, 
"Reign  over  us"  (or,  as  one  of  the  versions  so 
suggestively  translates  the  Hebrew,  "Wave  your 
branches  over  us").'" 

The  olive  also  held  a  most  conspicuous  place  in 
the  religious  life  of  the  peoples  of  the  Promised  Land. 
Indeed,  in  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple  480  years 
after  the  Babylonian  captivity,  the  olive  wood  was 
honored  by  being  used  in  completing  the  most  sacred 
parts  of  the  edifice.  The  cherubims,  the  sacred 
symbols  of  Divine  wisdom,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
oracle  and  each  with  wings  five  feet  long  extending 
over  the  temple  walls,  were  made  of  the  olive  tree. 

In  fact,  the  book  of  First  Kings  shows  that  the  olive 
wood  was  built  into  most  of  the  conspicuous  parts  of 
the  temple,  in  these  definite  words: 

"And  for  the  entering  of  the  oracle,  be  made 
doors  of  the  olive  tree;  the  lintel  and  side  posts 
were  a  fifth  part  of  the  wall.  So  was  also  made 
for  the  door  of  the  temple  posts  of  the  olive  tree,  a 
fourth  part  of  the  wall." 

Not  only  was  the  olive  given  a  primary  place  in- 
dustrially and  religiously ;  but  it  was  also  pressed  into 
service  on  festive  occasions  of  joy,  commemorating 
historic  events.  It  was  used  at  the  great  feast  of  the 
Tabernacles,  in  constructing  the  booths,  made  princi- 
pally of  olive  branches,  intermingled  with  branches 
from  other  trees.  And  when  spring  hangs  her  infant 
blossoms  on  California's  thousands  of  olive  trees,  rock- 
ed in  the  cradle  of  the  western  breeze,  we  will  not 
fail  to  understand  why  Nehemiah  reminds  us  of  the 
early  Jews'  deep  appreciation  of  the  olive  branch  as  a 
symbol  of  joy,  in  these  words: 

"So  the  people  went  forth  and  brought  them 
olive  branches  (with  pine  and  myrtle)  and  made 
themselves  booths,  every  one  upon  the  roof  of 


74  SEA  TO  LAND 

his  house,  and  in  their  courts.  And  all  the  con- 
gregation of  them  that  were  come  again  out  of 
the  captivity  made  booths  and  sat  under  booths, 
and  there  was  very  great  gladness." 

And  the  Psalmist  himself  must  have  been  inspired 
by  the  joy  that  came  from  the  prosperity  of  these  olive 
groves,  when  he  wrote,  in  the  one  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-eighth Psalm: 

"For  thou  shalt  eat  the  labor  of  thine  hands, 

happy  shalt  thou  be,  and  it  shall  be  well  with  thee. 

Thy  children  shall  be  like  olive  plants  round  about 

thy  table." 

Indeed,  with  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  the  Israelites 
found  that  there  was  no  tree  that  could  be  used  for  so 
many  purposes  as  the  olive — its  fruit  for  food,  its 
wood  for  costly  decorations,  its  branches  and  blos- 
soms for  festive  occasions,  and  its  oil  for  medicine 
and  light.  For  not  only  was  the  olive  itself  used,  but 
the  oil  was  also  used  for  the  anointing  of  the  bodies 
of  the  sick,  the  captive  and  the  dead.  And  the  oil  was 
likewise  valued  for  illuminating  purposes  in  the  lamps 
and  vessels  in  the  tabernacle.  And  how  highly  they 
regarded  it,  we  can  fully  understand  by  reading  these 
words  from  Leviticus: 

"Command  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
bring  in  to  thee  pure  oil  of  olive  beaten  for  the 
light  to  cause  the  lamps  to  burn  continually." 

There  was  no  spot  in  all  of  Palestine  that  Christ 
loved  to  frequent  more  than  the  Mount  of  Olives,  to 
which  he  retired  for  meditation  and  rest.  And  why 
was  this?  It  may  have  been  because  of  the  general 
outlook  that  he  gained  upon  nature;  which  is  doubt- 
less true  in  part.  But  it  was  not  the  primary  nor  ex- 
clusive reason  why  He  resorted  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives.  For  if  there  are  tongues  in  trees,  as  well  as 
sermons  in  stones,  I  thorougly  believe  that  those  beau- 
tiful olive  groves  must  have  said  something  to  His 


SEA  TO  LAND  75 

observing  mind.     What  was  it?     Why  did  He  go  to 
the  Mount  of  Olives? 

Perhaps  it  was  because  the  olive  is  the  symbol  of 
peace.  As  Ovid  said,  "In  war  the  olive  branch  of 
peace  is  in  use.**  So  the  olive  groves  which  the  poet 
Browning  says  "have  the  fittest  foliage  for  dreams/* 
may  have  helped  Him  in  coming  from  the  turmoil  of 
Jerulsalem  to  regain  calm  and  self-control  for  a  war- 
ring soul. 

Or,  as  He  walked  though  the  orchards,  noticing  that 
each  tree  was  sympathetic  to  the  rest  and  that  each 
appeared  to  be  a  neighbor  to  the  rest,  He  may  have 
been  inspired  by  thoughts  similar  to  those  of  the  elo- 
quent naturalist  who  said,  "The  trees  live  but  to  love 
and  in  all  the  groves  the  happy  trees  love  each  his 
neighbor."  And  as  a  result  He  found  it  more  possi- 
ble to  return  to  His  work  with  a  quickened  love  for 
His  .fellow-men. 

Or  perhaps  suggestions  for  chivalrous  meekness 
came  to  Him  as  He  observed  the  gray  foliage  of  the 
trees  modestly  glistening  in  the  sunlight.  It  might 
have  helped  Him  to  say,  "Blessed  are  the  meek.'* 

It  may  have  been  that  the  inspiration  of  timeless 
time,  the  power  of  eternal  years,  was  awakened  in 
His  thought  by  the  knowledge  of  the  marvelous  age 
of  those  trees.  He  may  have  known  that  well  cared 
for  trees  will  live  for  three  hundred  years  and  even 
longer.  For  so  great  is  the  olive's  hold  on  life  that 
even  when  a  dying  tree  is  cut  down  close  to  the 
ground,  its  vigorous  root  will  give  birth  to  still  an- 
other tree. 

Or  it  may  have  been  that  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
clothed  with  green  beauty,  like  many  of  our  own  olive- 
planted  foothills,  helped  Him  more  to  find  the  spirit- 
ual inspiration  of  nature  than  a  trip  to  some  other, 
bald  and  naked,  mountain;  helped  Him  to  say: 
"All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul; 


76  SEA  TO  LAND 

Great  in  the  earth  as  in  the  ethereal  frame; 
Warms  in  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars  and  blossoms  in  the  trees." 

All  these  inferences  may  be  true  and  doubtless  are 
in  part.  But — if  I  dare  say  it — it  seems  to  me  that  the 
primary  lesson  that  Christ  learned  in  frequenting  the 
Mount  of  Olives  was  the  importance  of  fruitfulness 
of  life.  For  the  predominant  characteristic  of  the 
olive  is  fruitfulness.  So  much  so  that  Spencer  in  his 
"Faerie  Queen"  speaks  of  the  warlike  birch — "the 
beech  for  shafts,"  "the  ash  for  nothing  ill,"  "the 
willow  for  forlorn  paramours;"  but  always  and  every 
time,  he  speaks  of  the  olive  as  the  "fruitful  olive." 

And  this  is  the  reason  why  the  olive  should  wave 
its  branches  over  the  other  trees.  For,  like  manna, 
it  is  a  composite  growth — a  food,  a  fruit,  a  medicine. 
Always  fruitful  for  a  three-fold  end;  and  never  fail- 
ing to  be  prolific,  the  trees  bearing  even  for  centuries. 

And  this  is  why  the  prophet  Jotham  reports  the 
trees  as  first  urging  the  olive  to  become  king;  and 
why  he  felt  disappointed  when  the  olive  tree,  in  the 
beginning,  refused,  saying: 

"Should  I  leave  my  fatness,  wherewith  by  me 

they  honor  God  and  man,  and  go  to  be  promoted 

over  the  trees?" 

For,  according  to  the  fable,  the  trees  after  consult- 
ing the  fig  and  vine  were  finally  compelled  to  tempo- 
rarily enthrone  the  worthless  bramble  as  king,  even 
as  Israel  had  selected  the  most  incompetent  man  for 
ruler,  instead  of  choosing  the  most  efficient  states- 
man who  was  available. 

But  justice  and  good  judgment  would  not  long 
tolerate  the  rule  of  a  worthless  potentate.  So  they 
ultimately  succeeded  in  enthroning  a  worthy  king,  in 
throwing  away  the  bramble  and  finally  crowning  the 
olive  to  wave  its  branches  modestly  but  worthily  over 
the  other  fruit-bearing  trees. 


SEA  TO  LAND  77 

THE  MODERN  PARABLE  OF  THE 
ORANGE  TREE 


It  is  most  appropriate  at  this  season  when  Cali- 
fornia is  just  beginning  to  harvest  its  "golden 
crop"  to  open  wide  our  eyes  and  find  the  message  of 
these  beautiful  fruit  bearing  trees.  For  the  Christ, 
who's  mind  was  quick  to  pronounce  a  curse  on  idle- 
ness in  the  parable  of  the  barren  fig  tree,  would  no 
doubt  have  been  just  as  alert  to  have  emphasized 
worthy  success  by  speaking  a  parable  of  the  orange 
tree,  had  there  been  orange  groves  in  Palistine  then 
as  there  are  today. 

But  there  were  no  citrus  trees  in  the  Holy  Land 
when  He  walked  its  highways  and  crossed  through 
its  orchards.  Hence  the  religious  worker  of  today 
has  the  advantage  over  the  founder  of  our  faith  of  a 
visual  acquaintance  with  this  luxuriant  tree.  Indeed 
this  fruit  has,  because  of  its  color,  become  the  most 
attractive  of  all  fruits  in  modern  life,  so  universally 
in  demand  that  it  seems  to  me  that  the  orange  itself 
has  and  is  still  seeking  interpreters.  So  if,  with 
Ruskin,  we  can  only  "open  our  eyes  and  see  things" — 
see  through  and  back  of  things,  I  am  sure  that  we  will 
clarify  the  vision  of  our  souls  and  find  emphasized 
some  abiding  truths  in  a  new  parable  of  the  orange 
tree. 

It  would  be  informing  to  speak  of  the  first  orange 
fruit  found  in  America — to  tell  in  detail  how  the 
Spanish  explorers  gave  the  citrus  fruit  to  the  Indians 
of  Florida,  who  in  eating  it  dropped  the  seeds  in  the 
soil,  making  possible  the  wild  orange  groves  now 
beautifying  the  valley  of  the  Indian  river.  For  this 
is  the  romantic  story  of  the  origin  of  the  orange  tree 
in  America. 


78  SEA  TO  LAND 

Or  it  would  be  keenly  interesting  to  every  Califor- 
nian  to  read  about  the  arrival  of  the  Franciscans  in 
the  southern  part  of  our  State,  who  established  twenty 
missions  in  the  rear  of  each  of  which  was  a  garden 
where  the  orange,  olive  and  fig  were  planted  and  bore 
fruit.  Because  this  explains  the  inception  of  the  in- 
dustry in  our  great  commonwealth  and  puts  into  our 
hand  the  key  which  unlocks  the  entrance  to  these 
modern  gardens  of  Hesperides — these  orange  belts 
now  scattered  throughout  our  State. 

Or  in  this  day  when  scholars  are  feverish  to  learn 
the  origin  of  things,  we  could  speak  of  the  world's 
first  orange  trees  which  were  found  in  India.  From 
the  two  original  spicies — the  bitter  and  sweet — which 
were  first  discovered  there,  we  could  trace  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  one  hundred  different  varieties  of  the  cit- 
rus fruit  which  are  found  in  the  world  today,  the 
original  fruit  being  imported  by  merchants  from  In- 
dia into  China  in  the  ninth  century  and  into  Europe 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  then  finding  its  way  to 
America  during  the  period  of  Spanish  exploration. 

But  we  prefer  to  be  interpretive,  to  come  closer  home 
than  this.  We  prefer  to  consider  these  fruit  bearing 
orchards  as  an  object  lesson  immediately  at  hand 
and  to  think  of  the  labor  and  activity  of  the  people 
co-operating  with  nature's  forces  that  have  made  this 
golden  crop  about  to  be  harvested  possible.  Thus 
recognizing  at  once  the  suggestion  coming  so 
eloquently  from  these  trees  that,  the  fundamental  se- 
cret of  all  growth  in  character  as  well  as  in  nature  is 
adaption  to  environment  and  service,  not  the  passive 
submission  of  Calvinism  alone,  nor  the  uncontrollable 
egotism  of  an  unrestrained  Arminianism,  but  the 
union  of  both,  the  working  of  God  with  man — spirit- 
ual co-operation,  the  most  helpful  phrase  in  modern 
religious  thought.  So  with  this  primary  principle  as  a 
premise  let  us  try  to  interpret  in  detail  the  new  para- 
ble of  the  orange  tree.  For  the  man  that  has  learned 


SHA  TO  LAND  79 

its  parable  has  found,  as  Dr.  McClaren  would  say,  the 
secret  of  a  fine  soul  culture. 

Some  days  past  as  I  stood  upon  an  elevation  com- 
manding a  view  of  that  great  area  of  eight  thousand 
acres  of  orange  groves,  spreading  off  into  the  dis- 
tance with  its  wide  expanse  of  tree  tops  blended  into 
a  continuous  luxuriant  green  and  its  myriads  of  ripen- 
ing oranges  nestling  in  the  deep  green  back  ground, 
like  countless  numbers  of  gold  fish  at  the  surface  of  a 
sea  or  like  circular  stars  in  some  new  sky,  these  were 
the  three  suggestions  that  came  to  me  as  I  tried  to 
learn  its  beautiful  parable. 

First,  the  secret  of  a  refined  Christian  character  is 
an  abiding  sense  of  the  reality  of  God,  as  revealed  in 
Christ.  For  the  finest  spirits,  the  deepest  minds  and 
the  most  arresting  personalities  from  Gladstone  and 
Lincoln  down  to  the  ordinary  citizen,  have  been  those 
that  have  drawn  their  inspiration  and  thought  from 
hidden  sources.  Just  as  the  fruit  and  leaves  of  these 
trees  receive  their  rich  color  from  the  sunbeams  and 
absorb  their  health  from  the  moisture  coming  from 
the  heart  of  God's  hills,  so  the  cultured  souls  of  his- 
tory have  received  their  winsome  illumination  of  per- 
sonality from  a  light  that  shineth  neither  by  land  nor 
sea. 

We  realize  that  these  trees  could  not  grow  where 
there  is  limited  sunshine  and  a  restricted  water  sup- 
ply. Neither  can  men  find  moral  maturity  and  health 
until  they  possess  that  type  of  mind  which  is  char- 
acterized by  spiritual  reality.  We  know  that  Cali- 
fornia's far-famed  orange  orchards  would  not  be  pos- 
sible without  incessant  sunlight;  and  that  our  golden 
fruit  would  never  again  pass  through  the  Golden  Gate 
to  the  markets  of  the  world,  if  the  sun  did  not  appear 
to  shower  down  upon  our  orchards  its  magic  beauty 
gathered  in  its  own  paradise  beyond  the  gates  of  the 
morning.  But  Tennyson,  who  had  a  sane  knowledge 
and  appreciation  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  was  also 


80  SEA  TO  LAND 

well  aware  of  the  secret  of  a  beautiful  life  when  he 

said  of  those  who  had  not  discovered  it, 

"For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 

That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 

If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  bands  of  prayer 

Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend?" 

At  first  I  could  not  understand  why  the  owners 
cultivated  their  orchards  so  incessantly.  But  when  I 
was  told  by  one  of  the  experts  that  continual  pulver- 
izing of  the  soil  made  the  moisture  more  accessible 
to  the  roots,  permitted  the  oxygen  of  the  air  to  find  its 
way  to  the  tree,  and  liberated  the  nitrogen  in  the  soil 
so  that  it  would  be  absorbed,  then  I  saw  clearly  that 
there  was  a  scientific  reason  for  the  constant  har- 
rowing ;  and  felt  that  it  might  be  very  practical  to  de- 
mand that  we  deepen  our  convictions  so  that  we  can 
go  into  the  fields  of  human  life  equipped  with  the 
mighty  contagion  of  something  to  say  that  will  go 
deeper  than  the  ears,  to  harrow  the  inner  life  of  pat- 
ronizing listeners.  For  without  the  prophet  whose 
harrowing  words  opens  up  a  way  to  the  nerve  of  con- 
science and  quickens  the  deeper  emotions  of  the  soul 
men  will  not  become  eager  to  receive  truth  and  the 
masses  will  remain  proselytes  of  mammon  and  low 
ideals.  Indeed  the  irresistible  characters  in  religious 
service  like  the  great  singers  are  those  who  have  had 
their  hearts  broken ;  but  at  the  same  time  and  as  a 
result,  their  interest  in  righteousness  deepened  and 
their  wills  nourished  and  strengthened. 

These  trees  are  peculiarly  beautiful  and  strong  be- 
cause they  send  their  roots  into  a  well  prepared  soil 
thrilling  with  the  liberated  elements  of  life  and  their 
branches  into  God's  air  to  woo  the  purity  of  the  sun- 
light. And  the  young  who  are  to  lead  us  safely  in 
the  future  are  those  whose  souls  have  been  cultured 
by  helpful  and  trying  experiences — those  who  have 
been  taught  to  think  deeply,  to  see  far  in  vision  and 
to  act  bravely  because  the  conviction  of  truth  and 


SEA  TO  LAND  81 

experience  has  liberated  from  the  subconscious  mind 
— or  the  subsoil  of  their  lives — those  elements  which 
send  through  the  whole  man  the  iron  of  the  prophet 
and  the  revealed  wisdom  of  the  apostle. 

One  of  the  strange  characteristics  about  the  orange 
is  that  the  tree  is  unusually  sensitive  and  the  fruit 
very  hardy.  Indeed  the  tree  can  be  blighted  by  a 
frost  that  will  not  injure  deciduous  fruits  so  that  it 
must  be  planted  in  localities  protected  by  a  warm 
climate  and  God's  hills,  and  often  watched  and  tended 
like  an  infant  child.  But  the  orange  itself,  which  is 
so  hardy,  has  an  adavantage  over  many  other  varie- 
ties of  fruits  and  can  be  shipped  into  any  market  in  the 
world.  For  the  citrus  fruit  is  not  perishable  in  the 
same  sense  that  the  plums  and  peaches  are  and  after 
being  removed  from  the  trees  may  be  kept  for  weeks 
with  advantage  without  being  destroyed  by  decay  or 
losing  its  beauty. 

I  say  this  is  rather  unusual.  But,  to  mention  the  sec- 
ond lesson  of  the  parable,  it  is  no  stranger  than  the 
guiding  of  youth  through  the  formative  years  into  a 
maturity,  morally  beautiful  and  capable  of  vision.  And 
it  is  only  as  the  home  and  school,  the  church  and 
state  watch  over  these  sensitive  periods,  protecting 
the  young  from  the  blights  of  the  frosts  of  skepticism 
and  sensuality  that  their  lives  will  mature  into  char- 
acters as  golden  and  hardy  as  our  native  fruit.  Sane, 
honorable  evangelism  never  excludes  Christian  nur- 
ture any  more  than  the  sunlight  obviates  the  necessity 
of  soil  cultivation. 

The  orange  tree,  it  is  true,  does  not  tower  in  height 
and  conspicuous  leadership  like  the  giant  Sequoias  and 
Redwoods — although  it  is  said  that  the  bitter  specie 
of  the  tree  occasionally  acquires  considerable  diameter 
and  that  the  trunk  of  one  near  Nice  still  standing  in 
1789  became  so  large  that  two  men  could  scarcely 
embrace  it.  The  citrus  tree  does  not  tower  like  Babel. 
But  better  yet,  it  simply  bears  fruit  for  food — which 


82  SEA  TO  LAND 

the  giants  of  the  forest  fail  to  do — like  the  strong  men 
who  prefer  only  to  be  reliably  useful. 

And  this  third  thought  suggested  by  our  object  les- 
son is  most  apparent.  For  with  the  instinct  of  good 
Americans  we  hasten  to  declare  that  the  sight  of 
these  trees  all  comparatively  of  the  same  height  and 
vibrant  with  the  same  beauty  and  glow  of  health 
does  not  suggest  a  monarchy,  an  aristocracy  or  even 
a  plutocracy  but  rather  a  successful  democracy;  not 
only  one  of  an  equality  of  rights,  because  they  all 
have  access  to  the  same  sunlight  and  soil,  but  also  an 
equality  of  duty  because  they  all  seek  to  bear  fruit — a 
commonwealth  in  which  every  private  citizen  is  capa- 
ble of  being  an  uncrowned  king.  This  must  have 
been  the  lesson  that  Ruskin  interpreted  from  nature 
when  he  said :  "A  forest  of  all  manner  of  trees  is  poor, 
if  not  disagreeable  in  effect,  a  mass  of  one  species  of 
trees  is  sublime." 

And  thus  as  I  stood  on  the  highest  foothill  over- 
looking these  valleys,  these  were  the  most  important 
thoughts  that  were  suggested  to  me  by  what  I  saw — 
the  necessity  of  these  three  qualities  in  the  forming  of 
mature  character,  faith  in  God,  the  guidance  and  pro- 
tection of  friendship  and  education  for  youth,  and 
useful  service,  all  of  which  condensed  into  a  single 
phrase  means  the  co-operation  of  God  with  man  in 
producing  the  beautiful  fruit  of  a  refined,  symmetrical 
life. 

And  then  it  dawned  upon  me  that  a  number  of  other 
men  had  also  learned  parables  from  the  trees.  For 
as  I  looked  over  that  great  expanse  of  orchards  to  the 
south,  detecting  the  irrigating  streams  flowing  among 
the  trees,  with  patches  of  the  barren  desert  appearing 
here  and  there  in  striking  contrast,  the  results  of  an 
abiding  faith  in  God  came  to  me  in  the  words  of 
David : 

"Blessed  is  the  man  that  walked  not  in  the  counsel 


SEA  TO  LAND  83 

of  the  ungodly,  nor  standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners, 
nor  sitteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful. 

"He  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers  of 
water,  that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season,  his 
leaf  also  shall  not  wither,  and  whatsoever  he  doeth 
shall  prosper." 

And  finally  as  I  descended  the  foothill  and  came 
long  side  of  an  orchard  and  saw  a  barren,  scrubby 
trunk  next  to  a  splendid  orange  tree  vigorous  and 
laden  down  with  fruit,  the  words  of  Christ  pressed  to 
my  lips  for  utterance:  "By  their  fruit  ye  shall  know 
them.  *  *  *  A  good  tree  cannot  bear  evil  fruit, 
neither  can  an  evil  tree  bear  good  fruit." 

It  was  then  that  I  said  to  myself,  why  should  not 
all  men  observe  and  find  the  helpful  parable  in  this 
favorite  California  tree.  Because  we  are  more  than 
mere  animals  we  should  rebel  against  hearing  the  ter- 
rible parable  of  a  barren  fig  tree  pronounced  on 
our  lives.  But  if  we  profit  by  the  thoughts  suggested 
by  a  modern  parable  of  the  orange  tree,  then  our 
spirit  will  be  as  beautiful  and  wholesome  as  the 
eternal  green  of  its  leaves,  our  character  as  golden  as 
its  fruit  and  our  deeds  as  numerous  as  its  blossoms, 
for  often  the  new  blossoms  appear  before  the  ripe 
fruit  has  been  picked  from  the  branches. 


